Two men are being sought and a woman was arrested following the theft of two bulldog puppies from a home in North Hollywood, police said Monday.
Officers responded to a disturbance call around 11:30 a.m. last Friday in the 11300 block of Miranda Street, where they were told by a resident that the dogs had been stolen, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
The Vasquez family — Ana, Osvaldo and their daughter Sophia— breed the puppies at their home. The dogs can sell for thousands of dollars because of their special coloring and pedigree that they advertise on the American Kennel Club website and also on Craigslist, according to the family.
They often welcome prospective buyers at their home to look at the canines, though the family said after the recent incident, they won’t be doing that any longer.
The ordeal unfolded after a woman contacted them about the dogs, claiming she was going to come alone one morning while Osvaldo was at work. But she showed up with two men, who grabbed two of the five puppies on the premises, the video showed.
One of the assailants had to bust through a screen window because the victims had managed to lock the front door.
Ana and Sophia tried to stop the dognapping, which was captured on a surveillance video. But the two men got away in a dark-colored vehicle and, three days later, are still at large.
However, the woman — whose name has not been released — was arrested a couple of streets away when she tried to flee on foot, police said.
According to the Vasquez family, the mother bulldogs turned on the woman after she stayed behind and tried to pretend she didn’t understand what was happening. One of the bulldogs could be seen jumping on the woman, prompting her to scream, before both appeared to bark at and chase her, the surveillance footage showed.
In addition to the two men, authorities are also still searching for the puppies, whose conditions remain unknown.
“We don’t know how those puppies are going to be treated after, or … how are they going to take care of them,” Sophia Vasquez said.
