Absolutely barking
Police dispatch 8 officers in 5 cars to nab terrier for lunge at courier
EIGHT police officers swooped on a pensioner’s home to seize her tiny Yorkshire terrier after he allegedly ran towards a courier.
They arrived in five cars to collect Alfie, who is only six inches tall and weighs a stone, and take him away under the Dangerous Dogs Act.
Owner Claudia Settimo-Bovio, 73, said the reaction was ‘really over the top’, adding: ‘I was treated like a criminal and I’m not.’
Police arrived two months after ten-yearold Alfie ran towards a courier delivering a package at her house in Kingston Vale, south-west London. Miss Settimo-Bovio claims her pet did not even scratch the courier, saying that the man instead fell over as the dog approached him.
The grandmother said: ‘As soon as he saw my dog he was screaming like a lunatic, screaming, “He’s killing me”. People came running out because they thought someone was being attacked.’
The driver was left with only a graze on his waist, she claimed, but insisted on being taken to hospital. She said: ‘It only happened because he (the courier) started running away and fell over in the garden. He fell over and I told him if he was afraid to just stay still.
‘My neighbour came out and picked up the dog. It looked like the man had a little scratch above the waist, but I think that was from when he fell. My neighbour had to take him to the hospital because he was making such a fuss, but it was just a scratch and it could not have been a bite as his T- shirt was not damaged and it was not bleeding.’
The pensioner is still waiting to hear what will happen next.
Although the incident happened on June 21, police did not visit her property until last Friday. She said: ‘I had totally forgotten about it so when the police came, it was out the blue.’
She had told the courier to leave her package outside the door because Alfie can become excited when people arrive at her home. Around ten minutes later, when she went to collect her order, the dog towards the courier.
Miss Settimo- Bovio added: ‘Alfie’s very protective of me. He just likes to chase. Show me a dog who doesn’t like to chase.’
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: ‘ A delivery courier reported that a dog, possibly a border collie or similar size, had chased him and then leapt up and bit him on his stomach. He stated that he then fell over and was bitten behind the ear.’