Dog-gone tale
Stolen dachshund returned to happy owners
Yappy new year!
The ecstatic owners of beloved 7-year-old dachshund Luca were celebrating Thursday after their pet, stolen from outside an Upper West Side grocery and then sold to new owners, was back home in time for the impending arrival of 2021.
“Overjoyed,” said Victoria de Grazia after reuniting with her pedigree pooch to ring in the New Year. “We’re thrilled. I was worried, starting to think about the future without Luca ... It sounds a little Christmas-y. It was a good ending to an ugly thing.”
The dachshund, swiped this past Sunday, made a triumphant return after cops joined with the local community in tracking down the missing pet.
“The dog was brought back in a squad car in great style, accompanied by four young, smart detectives,” recounted de Grazia, 74. “It was an auspicious story on how people can collaborate. He’s a very lovely dog. It’s a very New
York story.”
Her partner and Luca’s co-owner, attorney James Periconi, agreed: “It brought out the best in people.”
In an added twist, the cops involved in locating Luca were all former or current dog owners.
The break in the case of the purloined pet came Wednesday when the owner of a business on W. 137th St. and Broadway alerted police about a man trying to sell a dachshund. A second tip immediately followed, reporting a man flagging down people leaving the nearby subway station in an effort to peddle the pooch.
Detectives began asking questions in the neighborhood and were soon steered to the new owners, who turned Luca over without hesitation. Cops said the price paid for the missing pet was between $100 and $500, less than the value of the dog.
A video captured the Sunday afternoon theft, with the 5-foot9, 170-pound suspect petting and stroking little Luca while the dog’s owner was shopping in the Garden of Eden grocery on Broadway near 107th St. The man then loosened the leash, picked up the dachshund and walked away.
“The video was the difference between this being a hopeless case and there being some hope of having him back,” said Periconi, 72, a former prosecutor.
De Grazia recalled her feeling of shock at watching the dognapping clip.
“When you see something like that, you want to say, ‘Can’t we unwind it?’” she said.
No arrest was immediately made, and De Grazia said she wasn’t eager to see the thief in handcuffs. It appears the suspect is a local drug addict known for selling random things on the street.
“These are bad times,” she said. “We have to be vigilant to make sure our neighborhood is taken care of. He’s the least of our problems. I’ll leave it to the Police Department.”