Around 1:30 p.m. on Friday, a man fell to the ground and went limp in a Perfect Pets outside Denver. He appeared to be experiencing a seizure.
Dogs in the pet store began to bark and jump up to the edges of their pens, alerting danger, as several employees rushed over to the man.
But in the background, another man who briefly hovered near the staff members briskly walked away to another part of the store. On security video, he is seen opening up a kennel and snatching two English bulldog puppies worth about $4,300 each, according to Bianca Rose Larsen, the store manager.
“Hey, what are you doing?” a staff member at the store, in Centennial, Colo., can be heard saying on the surveillance footage. “Stop! Stop! Stop!”
The thief collided with one of the employees trying to stop him and kicked her in the face. The puppies went flying, and the man just barely retrieved them before stomping out the door. Then, along with another man, he got into a gold Cadillac Escalade with chrome hubcaps, tinted windows and no license plates and sped off.
There was at least a partly happy ending: On Monday evening, one of the 11-week-old English bulldogs was safely returned. But three suspects are still on the loose, and one of the puppies remains missing.
It was not the first brazen theft of high-value pets in recent memory. In 2021, the singer Lady Gaga’s dog walker was shot by a thief who stole her French bulldogs; she offered a $500,000 reward for their safe return. And it’s not just dogs. Last month, a man ran out of a New Jersey bird store with an African grey parrot valued at around $7,000, according to the local ABC affiliate. In fact, Perfect Pets has suffered multiple burglaries before. Purebreds can cost thousands of dollars in the competitive market for unique pets with pedigree.
“He’s OK and is in good shape, but he must’ve gotten sick on his little journey,” Ms. Larsen, 34, said, adding that the returned puppy had a cold. “I’m just so happy he’s back. He gave me a little snuggle.”
A woman, whom the authorities have not named, returned the dog after she realized it matched the description of one of the dogs stolen from Perfect Pets. She purchased it from a street vendor in north Denver for $1,500, the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office said on social media on Tuesday.
“A good Samaritan returned one of the stolen puppies after seeing a news story about the theft,” the sheriff’s office said. “Perfect Pets is grateful for being reunited with the dog and plans to give her a reward.”
The police identified the man who collapsed on the store floor and was subsequently arrested at the store as Timothy Davis, 37. The authorities said he had faked a seizure as a diversion tactic. Mr. Davis faces charges of conspiracy to commit a felony, theft and drug possession. As of Tuesday, it was not clear whether Mr. Davis had a lawyer.
The police are still looking for three other suspects involved in the incident: two men who entered the shop around the same time as Mr. Davis did and the driver of the getaway vehicle. As of Tuesday evening, no other arrests in the case have been made, according to a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office.
After the puppies were stolen, Jens Larsen, Ms. Larsen’s father and the store owner, was in “absolute hysterics,” she said.
“It was my day off,” said Ms. Larsen, who is a biology student at the University of Colorado Denver and aspires to become a veterinarian. “I was supposed to be catching up on homework. My whole day was consumed by watching surveillance.”
At the end of the day, she was grateful to two longtime employees who tried to claw back the puppies before the suspects made it out of the door.
“They just put up a really valiant effort to get them back,” Ms. Larsen said. “I just watched those poor little puppies get tossed.”
Ms. Larsen was overwhelmed with emotion when she saw the puppy that had been returned. “It was impossible not to cry,” she said.
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