‘I just did the right thing’
Do-gooder, not dognapper: gal
A Bronx woman arrested for stealing a pit bull puppy off the streets insists she’s a dogooder, not a dognapper.
“I did the right thing,” an outraged Julia Jonhope told the Daily News after she was nabbed in the case of the allegedly purloined pooch named Luna. “They don’t care about the dog.”
The 20-year-old self-proclaimed Good Samaritan recalled how she and two pals driving through Fordham on a May 6 shopping trip spotted the adorable 2-month-old beige puppy at Jerome Ave. and E. 190th St. The dog had no leash, no collar and no owner in sight, she said.
“The boy that was sitting on the corner — I asked him, ‘How long has this dog been here?’ ” she recalled Wednesday. “He said, ‘Less than 20 minutes; it’s been out here just wandering.’ The dog was literally wandering.”
The dog’s owners, Janira and Hector Santiago, told police Janira was walking down Jerome Ave. with Luna in a baby stroller when the dog jumped out of the bottom basket without Janira realizing it.
The dog was a gift and therapy dog for their five kids, they told local news outlets. They only had the dog for a few days, and hadn’t had time to get tags, when she disappeared.
“We don’t have Luna home, the kids are always asking for her,” Janira Santiago told CBS2. “It’s not easy when the kids ask for her a lot.”
On Monday, cops put out a surveillance video of Jonhope, and asked the public’s help identifying her, saying she had been seen fleeing with the dog in a white BMW shortly after the Santiagos lost her.
But Jonhope says she and her pals were just continuing their shopping trip with Luna now in tow — and that she asked around the neighborhood about the pooch and its owner. “I picked up the dog, went to the furniture store because my friend was buying furniture,” said Jonhope. “I asked multiple people, ‘Is this your dog? Is this your dog?’ ”
After keeping Luna for a week, she was shocked to see the case of the missing puppy in the news. She turned Luna over to the 52nd Precinct stationhouse, she says.
“Here is the dog,” she told cops, according to the criminal complaint against her. “I was just trying to be good. I found the dog on the corner and a female gave it to me.”
Jonhope was arrested on petty larceny and criminal possession of stolen property charges. She was released without bail during a court appearance Tuesday night and is due back in court July 11.
Luna was returned to the Santiago family Tuesday.