Woman sues Lady Gaga in reward dispute after dog theft conviction

Lady Gaga took to Twitter with a desperate plea on Feb. 26, 2021, less than 48 hours after robbers stole her two French bulldogs and shot the man who had been walking them.

“My beloved dogs Koji and Gustav were taken in Hollywood two nights ago . ... I will pay $500,000 for their safe return,” she wrote.“if you bought or found them unknowingly, the reward is the same.”

Jennifer Mcbride returned the dogs about 80 minutes after the pop star’s tweet, bringing the two pooches to a Los Angeles Police Department station. Two months later, she was arrested and charged in connection with the dognapping after police said she didn’t merely find the dogs but knew the father of one of the suspects. In December, she was convicted of one count of receiving stolen property and sentenced to two years of probation, according to the Los Angeles County DA’S Office.

But Mcbride says she should still be paid for returning the dogs. On Friday, she sued Lady Gaga in Los Angeles County Superior Court, accusing the singer, whose legal name is Stefani Germanotta, of breach of contract and fraud. Mcbride alleges that Germanotta made the half-million-dollar promise in bad faith and that the singer used the reward as bait to induce Mcbride to come forward and put herself on law enforcement’s radar.

“This case is quite simple. Lady Gaga made a reward offer . ... She desperately wanted her dogs returned and my client took action to fulfill Lady Gaga’s wish,” lawyer K.T. Tran said in a statement. “My client had absolutely no involvement in the theft.”