Wherefore art thou, Romeo?
Camera catches creep stealing B’klyn woman’s much-beloved Shih Tzu
A crooked cur gave new meaning to the term pooper scooper when he swiped a tiny Shih Tzu relieving himself in his owner’s Brooklyn yard, police said Friday.
The dog’s owner, who named her pooch Romeo Rivera, said she let it out into her gated yard on Jerome St. near Pitkin Ave. in East New York to do his business about 9:30 a.m. on March 18 when a man in a hooded black sweatshirt and gray sweatpants scooped the beloved pet up and ran off with it
Valerie Rivera, 74, told police she knew something was wrong when she went to her back door and called out for Romeo Rivera to come back inside, but the dog didn’t return.
“That morning I was getting a delivery from the pantry. He was doing his business, so I went inside,” Rivera said.
“He went and did his doo as usual. I had a parcel someone brought for me and I put it in the kitchen. So when I come back, I see he’s taken a little time to come and he ain’t coming. So I called him.
I said, “Romeo, Romeo, come home, where are you?’ And Romeo didn’t come.”
Her neighbor’s surveillance camera caught the small whitehaired dog padding up to the thief as he walked past the gate with a small baby carriage or shopping cart.
The video shows the bowwow bandit reaching down to pet Romeo Rivera through the gate. Then the thief looks around him to make sure no one is watching before he makes off with the dog.
Romeo Rivera has been missing for more than a month, police said.
“My whole world is gone,” Riviera said. “I cried a lot. I still cry. He means everything to me.
Rivera said the 9-year-old Shih Tzu was a gift from a friend whose landlord had complained about the dog in 2018.
She said he showers every Wednesday and is the boss of the house, often mediating disputes that arise between Rivera’s cats.
“Romeo is the boss of me,” she said. “I have the cats. He is the boss of the cats. He takes care of the cats and he takes care of me. If I go to the bathroom, he goes to the bathroom. If I stand, he stands. If I walk, he walks. He looks to see everything I’m doing.”
If there was anything wrong with the dog, she said, it may have been that he was a little too friendly.
“Romeo loved everybody,” Rivera said. “Everybody. He goes by the gate there, the children come from school, calling him Romeo and he puts his head against the wall and they play with his head. They know his name. They call him Romeo.”
Rivera’s sister, Magdalene Primus, 59, has been helping her distribute fliers in the neighborhood.
“She was so distraught. That dog was her companion and I really felt for her,” Primus said. She loves animals. I was so heartbroken.
“I love Romeo. He’s such a good dog. I would say to him, ‘Romeo, Romeo, where art thou,’ like in Shakespeare, and he would just wag his entire body, yapping. He’s such a lovely dog.”
Cops on Friday released surveillance images of the thief, as well as photos of Romeo Rivera in the hopes someone recognizes the pair.
Anyone with information regarding this theft is urged to call NYPD Crime Stoppers (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.