Actress helps spread word to find snatched pooch
A frantic search for a pupnapped pooch ended happily Friday after a dogged hunt on the ground — and internet — for a Shih TzuYorkie mix with a mug that’s melted the hearts of thousands.
“We found him!” dog dad Max Troper announced about his best boy Benny, posting on Instagram that he was found in Far Rockaway, Queens.
The photogenic pup was last seen when a hired dog walker took him for a stroll near his South End Ave. apartment in Battery Park City in lower Manhattan at 10:50 a.m. Thursday. By 7 p.m., a distraught Troper and his wife Sophie filed a complaint with police, suspecting a walker for the service Wag was to blame for the heartless theft.
Wag issued a statement, calling it “an extremely rare case” and pledging “24-hour support, which includes the hiring of a private investigator and a monetary reward for the safe return of Benny,” according to ABC7 NY.
The lost-and-found tale stretched across the city and internet, where the Tropers posted pleas on Instagram — where their good dog is known as Benny the Shorkie — and Facebook. They also plastered posters around the neighborhood and up to seven blocks away at the Oculus.
“Kidnapped!! Please help return me to my family,” Benny’s dog parents wrote for him on his Instagram page.
But the search got kicked up a notch with the involvement of celebrity Wag investor, Olivia Munn, who called Benny’s owners herself to express her concern, according to ABC7 NY.
On the ground, First Precinct detectives led the dogged search, tweeting for a plea for help and promising surveillance footage to help track down the culprit.
“We sent detectives pictures of former walkers and they matched it,” Troper told the Daily News.