I’ve killed Charlie...
Blackmailer demands ransom for missing pet ...then sends owner picture of hanged dog
WHEN their beloved dog went missing during a walk in the countryside, a worried couple put up posters asking for help finding him.
But their concern turned to fear when they received a barrage of calls and texts from a blackmailer claiming to be holding their pet to ransom.
And that wasn’t the end of Andrius Snigir and Olivia Spionkowska’s ordeal, as the sender of the cruel texts then claimed he had killed the animal – and even sent a photo, supposedly of the dog, hanging by its neck.
The horrified owners are now praying that their missing pet, Charlie the beagle, is still alive.
Last night Mr Snigir, 29, said of the hoaxer: ‘He’s just one of those people who shouldn’t be walking this earth – you don’t do things like that. They think it’s funny to make fun of someone’s misery – it’s just wrong.’
Sixteen-month-old Charlie went missing on Saturday evening, during a walk off the lead through Sheepwash Nature Reserve in Tipton, West Midlands.
After searching for two hours, Mr Snigir and Miss Spionkowska, 31, went home and made 150 posters to put up on Sunday.
On Monday, Mr Snigir received an anonymous call from a man who initially claimed he’d seen Charlie with three Asian boys who were talking about dog fighting.
The mystery caller then claimed he had got the dog off the youths, and was willing to return him.
But he began demanding a reward as he bombarded the couple with a flurry of texts over 45 minutes. He threatened to ‘ put Charlie in his curry’. Then, 11 minutes after saying ‘right, Charlie’s having it’, he messaged them saying: ‘ Too late, Charlie’s dead.’
In spite of the claim that their pet was dead, he went on to tell the pair they could have Charlie back if they put money in his bank account.
When they did not reply, and blocked his number, he used a different phone to send them the harrowing image of a beagle hanging by the neck.
Distraught, the couple, from Dudley Port, West Midlands, reported the incident to West Bromwich Police, but claim officers said nothing could be done at that stage.
The pair, who have a baby daughter, are only saved from total despair by the fact that the hanging dog, although a beagle, seems not to be Charlie.
Mr Snigir said: ‘ Looking at the picture we don’t think it’s him – the dog was a bit too chubby to be Charlie. Thankfully we thought this quite quickly but we would have been devastated if it was him.’
A West Midlands Police spokesman said the disappearance of the dog and the ensuing texts were to be examined in more detail.