North Syracuse, N.Y. — Colleen Clemett knew she only had a few minutes Saturday evening to run into Dog Daze for the food she buys for her older dog.
Clemett left her two prized dachshunds - Abbie and Maymay - in their crate on the front seat of her black Kia Sol.
Inside, she chatted with the store co-owner Ruth Sturgis as she checked out. She walked out of the store to find no sign of her car or dogs.
“I ran back in and I said ‘Ruth, the car’s gone,’” Clemett of Bridgeport said Tuesday.
North Syracuse police came to investigate. They tried to get the security video, but they couldn’t get it to play. They told Clemett it would likely only be a couple of hours before the car was found. She got a lift to a friend’s house where she waited for word about her car or dogs.
Every hour her smooth-haired dachshund Abbie was gone was an hour without the dog’s crucial heart medications. The dog takes four different medications seven times a day since she had open heart surgery in 2019 in Japan.
Meanwhile, the owners of Dog Daze, Ruth and Dave Sturgis, scoured the streets for the dogs.
“Dave was literally stopping people on the street and saying ‘$100 for any information,’” Clemett said.
At 11 p.m. Saturday, the owners went back to the store with their nephew who had set up the cameras when he worked for them. They were able to show police the video of the suspects taking the car. Originally the thieves had tried a worker’s car and then doubled back for Clemett’s car.
Finally at 3 a.m. Sunday, Ruth and Dave called it a night.
“They just drove all over the place for hours and hours looking for them and then they did the same thing the next day,” Clemett said.
Friends and fellow members of a dog training club posted photos of the dogs on social media.
The dogs were microchipped, but no one had alerted Clemett.
The car thieves gave the dogs to a friend who turned them over the Auburn animal control, police said. He told them he found the dogs by the side of the road, but police later learned that was not true.
Almost a day after the dogs and car were taken, Clemett was reunited with her beloved dogs on Sunday afternoon.
“As soon as they saw me they were at the front of the crate whining and wagging their tails,” she said.
While the dogs always ride in their crate Clemett couldn’t help but let them ride home in her lap on the way home.
“We broke the rule of riding in their crate,” she said. “Abbie was so anxious to see me, you know, so excited and so nervous, so I wasn’t going to make her get back in the crate right at that point.”
Clemett, a former veterinarian technician, said she is angry at the thieves but thankful the dogs were not harmed.
“They could have just put the crate out right there and left the dogs and not taken off with them,” she said. “On the other hand, they didn’t hurt them.....”
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Update: Police found the car in Auburn on Monday night, according to the North Syracuse police. Two teenagers, a 17-year-old and 15-year-old, were arrested for the car theft after police received numerous tips from the public.
Correction: Earlier versions of this article reported that police said the dogs were left on the side of a road in a crate. Police later said that was incorrect. The car thieves gave the dogs to a friend who took them to Auburn animal control and told officials there he found them by the side of the road.
Police also incorrectly said the car was running. The article has been corrected to reflect that the car was not running.
Staff writer Rylee Kirk covers breaking news, crime and public safety. Have a tip, story idea, photo, question or comment? Reach her at 315-396-5961, on twitter @kirk_rylee, or rkirk@syracuse.com.