This story happened just a few minutes away from where Junebug and I lived two months ago:
Two men randomly steal and then strangle dog
By Susan McDonough and Harry Harris, STAFF WRITERS
OAKLAND — Two men flashed a gun, stole a woman's dog and then strangled the tiny Yorkshire terrier as they fled, police said.
Lea Dunn — a 25-year-old molecular biologist who raised the 2.9-pound Princess from a pup — said she and her boyfriend were taking a friend home Thursday night when two men pushed their way past them as they entered the lobby of the friend's apartment complex in the 100 block of Montecito Avenue, near Lake Merritt.
Princess was walking unleashed just a few feet ahead. Inside the lobby, one of the men scooped up the dog and showed her to his friend.
Dunn said the man made no eye contact with her or her friends — which signaled to her that he was not just stopping to admire her dog.
"I knew something was up," said Dunn, who was quite used to people fawning over her dog, whose silky hair she tied with ribbons into little puffs.
She struggled fiercely to wrestle Princess from the man's arms, while the second man pulled a gun and threatened the group, both Dunn and police said.
Dunn said she heard the gunman say, "Don't get yourself killed."
The men left the lobby with Princess, while Dunn and her boyfriend followed.
"I was screaming at the top of my lungs," Dunn said. The thieves were about a half-block ahead when, Dunn said, she saw one of the men put the dog on the ground. When she and her boyfriend reached Princess, the dog was dead.
"It all happened so ... quickly," Dunn said. She is not sure how Princess was injured, but police said they believe the men strangled the dog as they fled.
Responding Officer Bradley Miller called the suspects heartless and the crime a "brutal, senseless act." "If these types of individuals can do this to a small, helpless animal, what are they capable of doing to a human being?"
The men are being sought by police for the robbery and will face some form of animal cruelty charge as well, police said.
Dunn, an Oakland resident, said she spent the early part of this week collecting pictures of Princess for a scrapbook and gathering "bags galore" of her dog's trinkets and toys.
The two had built quite a bond in the past three years. Princess went everywhere with her human companion: Tilden Park, Halloween in San Francisco's Castro district, the Gay Pride parade, the Oakland Music Festival.
"It was just her and me before my boyfriend came around," Dunn said. She believes the men might have wanted to steal Princess because she looked valuable. Dunn said she feels awful about what happened to Princess, but she is glad the men did not get away with her pet.
"I would be worried sick," she said.
Police and Crime Stoppers of Oakland are offering up to $5,000 in reward money for information leading to the arrest of the suspects. Anyone with information should call police at 238-3326 or Crime Stoppers at 238-6946.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_3557742