The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Brazen city dog thieves strike in broad daylight
Adog owner believes thieves are becoming so cocky they have no qualms about trying to steal beloved pets in broad daylight from gardens and parks following a wave of attempted dognappings in recent weeks.
Dundee man Mikey Morrison contacted the police after two men attempted to “coax” his white German Shepherd, Luna, out of a private garden on Huntly Place on Sunday.
The incident came almost 24 hours after teenager Thomas Wilson and his German Shepherd, Simba, were approached while walking along the Stannergate Road.
Mikey, 27, said the men made their way to the back gate at around midday on Sunday as they looked to snatch Luna.
“That’s how confident these people are getting, they are approaching gardens now,” he said.
“I was aware of the incident involving Simba, and when this happened to me the next day I wanted to make others aware.
“Thankfully, for me, Luna isn’t keen on strangers and when I came out the two men scarpered as quickly as they could.
“I never got a good look but one of them had a grey hooded jumper on with blue jeans and a baseball cap, but I couldn’t place an age on them.”
Mikey said he believed the incident was “targeted” due to the location of his address.
He said: “There is no gate access from the rear of my address. My back garden looks onto wasteland.
“These people have come out their way off the communal path to come across the waste land and approach my garden.
“I think this has been a targeted attempt – I think they’ve seen me out and about with Luna.
“She’s a white German Shepherd puppy, which isn’t a very common dog. She could have easily been taken from the garden.
“If it wasn’t for that reason to take the dog, why run away when I came out of the house?
“As soon as they ran off I got the dog inside and put something on social media which has been widely shared.
“At first I wasn’t going to put anything out there or contact the police but then I thought how devastated I would have been if Luna had been taken.
“I had managed to get the picture of one of the guys as I had my phone in 1. Tuesday March 9, between 2.45-5.30pm, there were reports of two men trying to steal dogs in Baxter Park.
At 7pm the same day, a dog is stolen from Dighty Gardens and later recovered.
my hand at the time and put that up on the post and I phoned the police on 101 later that day.”
Police Scotland confirmed they are investigating the incident in Douglas.
A spokeswoman said:
“Around 8.25pm on Sunday, March 14, we received a report of a possible attempted dog theft in the Huntly Place area of Dundee.
“Inquiries to establish the full circumstances are ongoing.”
Nicola Sturgeon said there is no room for complacency after a slight increase in coronavirus cases following the return of children to schools in Scotland.
Speaking during the Scottish Government’s daily briefing yesterday, she said she could not rule out the possibility that a rise in cases over the last week was linked to the return of schooling.
She said: “It is important to note that over the past seven days we have actually seen a slight increase in cases and we will be monitoring that carefully and it does provide us with a reminder that there is still no room for complacency and that our room for manoeuvre is limited.”
Children in P1-3 returned to Scotland’s schools on February 22. Yesterday, they were joined by classmates in P4-7, with secondary school pupils returning to in-class learning part time.
Ms Sturgeon said: “Can we rule out a link between schools partially reopening and a bit of an uptick in cases? No, I don’t think we can.
“And that will not be because particularly of transmission within schools but we know that when schools open there is just a little bit more movement generally as parents take children to school, for example.”
Chief medical ufficer, Dr Gregor Smith, said the rise in cases was “not as great as I had wondered that we might see” and that he was “not overly concerned”.
He said: “We knew that as schools went back it a always going to be the possibility that, as people could go about their lives more, there would be more contact of one sort or another and that could lead to more transmission.”