Puppy thieves held knife to pregnant owner’s stomach
ROBBERS held a knife to a pregnant woman’s stomach before stealing a valuable litter of one-day old French bulldog puppies.
There are fears the eight vulnerable pups, worth £1,500 each, could die without their mother after they were snatched from their home.
Leeanne Corbett, 26, was with her three sons when she heard a knock at the door at around 9.40pm on Tuesday.
She thought it was her partner, but when she answered she was greeted by two men with their hoods pulled up.
They pushed Miss Corbett, who is six months pregnant, into the kitchen where they held a butcher’s knife to her stomach and demanded money from the sale of the fashionable dogs.
When she told them the ‘Frenchies’ had not been sold they moved the puppies’ incubator into the hall of the house in Stretford, Manchester.
One of the robbers then went upstairs where Miss Corbett’s twin seven-year- old sons were playing computer games. She begged him not to steal the Playstation console and the dognappers fled with the incubator containing the eight pups.
Earlier this year French bulldogs displaced Labradors at the top of the Kennel Club’s list of popular breeds for the first time since records began. The organisation has seen a 3,000 per cent increase in registrations in the UK in the past decade.
Celebrities including the Beckhams, Lady Gaga and Hugh Jackman own the dogs and pedigree puppies sell for as much as £2,000. Michelle Smith, honorary secretary of the French Bulldog Society of England, said: ‘The price can vary around the country but I would never expect to pay less than £1,500.’
Police have released CCTV footage in a bid to find the offenders. Detective Sergeant Dave Jones said: ‘It’s completely shocking that a pregnant woman and her young children have faced such a terrifying ordeal, and we are determined to find the men responsible. As an well immediate as finding priority the offenders, is to find these puppies.’ The litter, worth £12,000, could die if they are not fed for more than 36 hours and the young dogs’ mother, Reign, after her has puppies been left were distressed taken away. Miss Corbett appealed for anyone with information to get in touch and said: ‘Trying to sell them will be very hard. I think they won’t know what to do with them. They need feeding every hour, they are puppies. Drop them off at a vets so they can get home to their mum, they won’t survive without their mum.’ Most French bulldog puppies are not sold until they are at least eight weeks old. In 2016, a five- strong gang of dognappers stole ten pedigree ‘Frenchies’ worth up £15,000 from a breeder in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, and a 16-year- old boy admitted stealing two sevenweek-old French bulldog puppies worth £4,000 in Wolverhampton.