A San Mateo woman is offering a $2,000 reward for the return of her Jack Russell Terrier allegedly kidnapped last week from her street.
Michelle Phaler said she let her dog Rusty go outside to relieve itself at about 9:30 a.m. Nov. 22 on the 1600 block of Marina Vista in the Edgewater Isle condominium complex. Her 56-year-old neighbor said he was putting down his groceries when he saw out his kitchen window a brunette 40- to 50-year-old white woman in an old gray sedan parked in a visitor's parking space. The woman allegedly said, "Come here Rusty," to the dog, which was about 50 feet down the sidewalk. It walked toward the woman, and she scooped it in to the car and drove away, the neighbor said.
The dog is about two feet long and white, with a rust-colored mask around its eyes and a rust-colored spot above its tail.
Phaler posted signs offering a reward for the dog, raising it from $1,000 to $2,000.
Phaler, a 38-year-old ice-skating instructor, has lived in the complex for 10 years and said she had never had anything stolen.
"I'm devastated," she said. "He's just a great little doggie."
The 9-year-old dog was calm and loved children and animals, she said.
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"He's the kind of dog that would listen to you. You only had to tell him once," she said. Phaler also owns a blue and gold Macaw named Cannibal that squawks when guests are in the condominium, but said she never received noise complaints.
She said she checked the complex's security log of license plate numbers, but the only gray vehicles were a truck and a BMW. She notified the Peninsula Humane Society and pet stores. She also contacted police, who said they could do nothing.
Across Phaler's street, Cecilia Morphis runs the Edgewater Isle Apartments office. She said Phalen came in crying about the dog last week, and said Phaler often paces outside her home.
"Everybody here was alerted," Morphis said, adding that the mailman had also been looking for the dog.
"If I could find that dog it would light my heart," she said.
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
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PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
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