Thieves steal van with 30 rescue dogs — and try to sell them, California cops say
A van packed with 25 to 30 rescue dogs — which was stolen from a San Francisco Bay area motel overnight — turned up on Monday, according to authorities.
But some of the dogs that were inside may still be missing, police said.
The van of was taken from an Extended Stay Hotel in Fremont between 10 p.m. Sunday and 5:20 a.m. on Monday, the Fremont Police Department said on Twitter Monday. Officers said the animals had been “secured” in the van, but “were in the vehicle with it running (keys in the ignition) overnight.”
“The van was luckily equipped with GPS,” Fremont officers said.
Oakland police spotted the stolen van on Monday morning and pulled the vehicle over, finding dozens of dogs inside, the Oakland Police Department said. The traffic stop of the stolen van was around 81st Avenue and Olive Street, KRON reported.
Fremont police thanked the Oakland officers for tracking down the dogs.
“We are so happy to see these rescue dogs get rescued by your officers this morning!” Fremont officers said on Twitter.
The woman who reported the van stolen — Julie Bingham, owner of D&J Pets Transport — had stopped in Fremont on Sunday night after dropping a dog off in Sunnyvale, according to KGO, which reported that “Bingham say she was on the second leg of a trip that started in Florida, wound up the East Coast, and through the Midwest before making it to California.”
Bingham said she would usually sleep on an air mattress with the dogs inside the van, which is ventilated and temperature controlled, but she was carrying so many dogs there wasn’t room for her, KGO reports.
According to NBC Bay Area, “Police believe two suspects were trying to sell the dogs.”
Police think three dogs may remain missing, but 27 were found, KGO reported.
NBC Bay Area reporter Jodi Hernandez wrote on Twitter that a “man told me he offered to sell him one for $100.”
D&J Pets Transport said in a Facebook post Monday that, although the van is back in its owner’s hands, “animal control has all the dogs so I have not been able to do a head count.”
Some who were expecting the dogs to be delivered were worried.
“We’re very angry,” said Michelle Roman of Tacoma, Washington, who was anticipating the delivery of a 3-month old English bulldog, according to KGO. “We’re sitting her very stressed out. Hoping that police are going to react swiftly. We’re worried about the dogs.”
This story was originally published December 9, 2019 at 5:07 PM with the headline "Thieves steal van with 30 rescue dogs — and try to sell them, California cops say."
