'Hot'- dig sentence
Wag walker cops plea in Apple pooch heist
He’s got his tail between his legs. The Wag dog walker who stole a Manhattan couple’s beloved Shih Tzu-Yorkie to give the pup to someone else will serve just 10 days of community service, a judge ruled at a plea-deal hearing on Thursday. Christian Madriaga copped to felony burglary charges in ManhattManhattan Criminal Court for the JuneJun 13 theft of the pooch, BennyBenny, who was found safe after the dog’s owners got in ttouch with Wag’s celeblebrity spokeswoman, actretress Olivia Munn. Madriaga’s lawyer sasaid his client knew he was in the doghouse for kidnapping the Battery Park City rescue pup while working for the dog-walking service aapp company. “Mr. MMadriaga, who otherwise has no criminal history, recognizes that he made a terrible mistake, feels awful about it and this is his way of accepting responsibility for his actions,” lawyer Adam Freedman told The Post. As part of the deal, the 22year-old Madriaga will be able to replead to petit-larceny charges in 12 months’ time if he avoids being rearrested. According to the criminal complaint, Madriaga was scheduled to walk Benny around 11 a.m. but canceled the appointment. A new Wag walker showed up and raised the alarm when the pooch was missing.
Distraught owners Max and Sophie Troper rushed home to review surveillance footage from their South End Avenue apartment and saw a man strolling out of the building carrying the “Shorkie” under his arm. Madriaga planned to give the dog to someone else before detectives arrived at his Queens address the next day and retrieved the fourlegged hostage.
The Tropers said the investigation kicked into gear only when they reached out to Munn, who called them at 4 a.m. and kept them calm throughout the ordeal.
“She was on phone with senior people at Wag, but at this point it had already been 15 hours since it happened,” Max Troper, a lawyer, told The Post in June.
The app has a troubled history in New York City. On the same day Benny was stolen, another Big Apple pup was killed during a walk with a different Wag employee, a lawsuit charged.
According to the suit, the Hudson Yards couple’s Yorkie, Whiskey, was hit by a car and killed on June 13.
Whiskey was at least the 11th dog lost or killed by Wag in the Big Apple since 2015, according to records seen by The Post.