Imagine having your pet stolen, thinking you have a slim chance of getting it back, but a year later you receive a phone call from a police officer nearly 3,000 kilometres away that it had been found.
It’s what happened to an Ottawa woman, Alaina Tripp and her dog Teddy.
“Teddy is home, and that’s a really great feeling,” she told CTV News on Tuesday.
It’s a reunion nearly a year in the making, and a “tail” of never giving up hope.
It all started when Tripp says her mini poodle Teddy was stolen from her Centretown apartment last September.
“I called the police, the police came to get fingerprints,” she said.
The theft was captured by security cameras from a neighboring property.
“They have cameras that saw [the suspect] push in the air conditioner and actually caught the gentleman taking Teddy. And going into his truck,” she said.
As time went on, she thought there was little chance of seeing him again, until two weeks ago, when she got a phone call.
“It said, ‘call the Riverton Police Department’ and I said, ‘okay, maybe this is a joke,'”
It was no joke.
The call was coming from a police department in Riverton, Wyo. saying they had her dog.
Police were able return the dog to Tripp because of a simple traffic stop.
“Yes, a traffic violation. Yeah. Then ended up into this big deal,” said Shannon Sanderson, an Animal Control Officer with the Riverton Police.
“One of our officers, Officer Don Nethicumara, made just a normal traffic stop on this gentleman. And every traffic stop, as everybody knows, they run their name to see if there’s any warrants or anything like that.”
“After running this gentleman’s name, it was found that he had a stolen dog from Canada.”
The officer making the stop asked if there was a dog in the car, said Sanderson.
“He did say yes and there was Teddy.”
Police took the dog back to the station, where Teddy, “just stole all of our hearts,” she said.
Staff at the police station took care of Teddy, even taking him home at night. Thanks to donations and a lot of effort by many, Teddy began his long journey home.
“And logistic wise, it’s not as easy as some people think,” said Lori Borutski with Ottawa and Valley Lost Pet Network.
Teddy was driven to Denver, Colo. then flown to Los Angeles where he flew to Toronto’s Pearson Airport, and Borutski helped Tripp to pick him up.
“I really feel like he remembered her and he was happy to be home,” she said.
“I never thought I’d be here. It’s one of those happy endings where you’re sure that there will not be a happy ending,” said Tripp.
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