A Hall County man’s tearful Father’s Day plea for the safe return of his stolen dog has been answered. The dog was inside his owner’s car when it was stolen Sunday morning from outside the man’s home in Flowery Branch.
Braselton Police located the car and dog overnight at the Best Western Braselton Inn on Zion Church Road, according to Hall County Sheriff’s Public Information Officer Derreck Booth.
The dog, a 15-pound male Pomeranian named “Bear,” was unharmed. The owner, identified by WSB-TV as Matt Sanders, said in an interview with the station that Bear was “like a son to me.”
He said he put the dog in the car then realized he forgot his cellphone. He went inside the house to get the phone. When he returned, the car doors were locked and a woman was in the driver’s seat wearing only a towel.
“The victim stated that he told the woman to get out of the car or at least let the dog go,” Booth states in a press release. “The man told deputies the woman then drove through the yard and headed toward Union Church Road.”
The incident happened in the 4500 block of Union Place in the Chestnut Mountain area of Hall County.
Sanders told deputies the woman may have been at a party in the neighborhood Saturday night. Officers checked homes in the immediate area but were unable to determine if the suspect had been there the night before.
After police located the car and dog, the woman was taken to Northeast Georgia Medical Center for evaluation. The Hall County Sheriff’s Office has made no determination at this point on charges.
The woman’s name is not being released at this time due to health privacy laws.
