A Chicago-area family was reunited with their beloved sheepadoodle, Charlie, on Sunday, two days after he vanished while tied outside a local business.
It took a team of friends, neighbors, reporters, police, and other assorted good Samaritans using modern technology to make the miracle reunion happen.
Erin Franzblau told reporters she left Charlie tied just outside her children’s day care center in Lincoln Park around 6:00 p.m. Friday while she picked up her little ones.
“[I] really deeply regret this, but I tied him up outside the day care and thought it was safe,” she told WGN-TV.
“There was a big window where people could see him, and he was right there.”
She elaborated for WLS-TV, “We messed up in that I was running from a long day at work. My husband was out of town in Denver. I was alone picking up three kids: two toddlers and a baby. And, I was rushing. I tied him up outside the day care where there’s a window, where everyone can see him.”
She was only gone a few minutes, Franzblau said.
And when she got back out, she was distraught to find that Charlie was nowhere in sight.
“Surveillance footage later showed someone in a dark hoodie unleashing Charlie and taking him away from the area,” People magazine reported.
The woman in the footage was asking passersby, “Whose dog is this? Whose dog is this?” Franzblau told reporters. “She was kind to him, but he was shaking.”
Franzblau and her husband, Sean Franzblau, broadcast a cry for help online. They offered a $5,000 reward.
Several news outlets picked up the story and helped spread the word.
Pet-loving Chicagoans were touched by news reports of the pet’s predicament.
“The thief’s movements were tightly tracked by people who heard about the theft,” CBS News reported.
Two good Samaritans noticed Charlie at a local department store, followed the alleged dognapper to a nearby apartment, and contacted police.
The couple sang the praises of everyone who helped find their beloved pet.
“Charlie is home with us tonight because of our community,” Sean Franzblau told CBS News.
“It was our friends, neighbors, the news, police, but most incredibly complete and total strangers. Hundreds, maybe thousands of total strangers that were spreading out around the internet, reaching out to us with tips.”
The two people who spotted Charlie and contacted authorities were given the reward.
But later, one rescuer insisted the other get the whole $5,000, “because they felt they needed the money more,” CBS News reported.
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