French Bulldog Stolen From San Leandro Found 900 Miles Away in Arizona, Returned Home – SFist

One-year-old French bulldog Bruno’s dognapping was captured on video, which helped connect the dots to recover the dog 927 miles away in Wilcox, Arizona, and return that little pupper home.  
It’s bizarre that the crime du jour these days is stealing French bulldogs, but those little suckers do fetch a very high price. (Remember last year when they shot Lady Gaga’s dogwalker just to steal her Frenchies?) Though the upside to this ruff stuff is that the dogs are recovered and returned with surprising frequency. Yet rarely does the dog have as wild a ride as a one-year-old French bulldog named Bruno who was stolen in San Leandro on September 2. KTVU reports that Bruno has been returned home after being located — 927 miles away in Wilcox, Arizona.
1/3: This man & woman snatched Bruno, a French bulldog puppy that got loose from its yard in area of Meekland & Lewelling near San Leandro, heartbroken owner Denise Esparza tells me. “I treat him like our son. “I’ve been crying all day the last couple of days.” pic.twitter.com/e1AOphspVX

The heist itself was captured on video, as seen above (and honestly, shouldn’t there be additional charges filed for the fashion crime of that color-block denim track suit?). Bruno managed to get out of the house and roam his San Leandro neighborhood. Unfortunately, he was grabbed by a couple who realized his high resale value (estimated at $10,000), tossed the pup into their silver Hyundai Sonata, and headed south.
The dognappers actually had the nerve to contact the original owners and demand Bruno’s microchip information. That, and footage captured on the surveillance video, gave police enough of a lead to unspool the car’s license information and then put out a stolen vehicle bulletin, leading to the very happy reunion seen below posted Wednesday by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office.
Bruno’s home! Our detectives followed the leads from San Lorenzo to Arizona and brought him home. https://t.co/ngIU7aTpbh https://t.co/kxVGyou0J3 pic.twitter.com/FLIa1jV2eo

“Our detectives worked the case from San Lorenzo, to the city of Pomona, and then to Wilcox, Arizona, where Bruno was located in the backseat of the suspect’s vehicle during a traffic stop initiated by an Arizona State Trooper just 30 miles from the New Mexico state line,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post. “The suspects were arrested.”
Those suspects, 40-year-old Uriah Byrd of San Francisco and 22-year-old Saveya Maybury of Lewisville, Texas, will face charges of grand theft.
Related: San Jose Police Recover Two Stolen French Bulldogs Following Arrest of Suspected Gang Members [SFist]
Image: Alameda County Sheriff’s Office via Facebook
The victim in a shooting that occurred last week in the Western Addition has succumbed to his injuries, and the case has now been transferred to SFPD homicide detectives.
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Joe Kukura is an SFist staff asst. editor / reporter who has been published in almost every San Francisco publication, including Hoodline, SF Weekly, Thrillist, and Broke Ass Stuart.
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