While tying up your dog outside a store usually doesn’t end in tragedy, one Jersey City woman w devastated after she did just that last Easter Sunday. Her dog was kidnapped right in front of her eyes – but after four days of heavy media coverage, a man called her to say he had the dog.
It was 2:30 a.m. last Sunday when Jersey City resident Lisa Fadden tied her black Scottish terrier outside of the 7-11 in Journal Square to pick up milk and a few other items. She kept her eye on the dog the whole time.
While she was about to pay for the groceries, she saw a man untie her dog and start to walk away with him, she said.
She said she dropped her groceries and gave chase. She was close, but the man got into a white Lexus with the dog and sped away on Sip Avenue.
“I nursed him back and he’s my kid.” – Lisa Fadden
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“I almost had my hand on the handle of the car, but he sped right off,” she said Tuesday morning. “He was in a white Lexus with a sunroof.”
She also got the license plate number.
When the police responded, she gave them the license plate number. She said that the police drove her home. While she was in the police car, a report came in over the radio that the vehicle was registered in Jersey City, and that it was “nearby,” she said. However, the police would not elaborate.
For the next few days, she hoped to get more information, but never got a call.
In the meantime, Fadden and a neighbor, Bethe Schwartz, contacted the press and forwarded the information to local websites. The story wound up both in the local daily newspaper and at www.hudsonreporter.com. After she was told by a Reporter writer to contact TV stations, the story was picked up by Channel 7 news as well.
Fadden offered a $500 reward for anyone who returned the dog or gave her information leading to the dog’s return.
“If that’s not enough, I’ll give more,” she said through tears on Tuesday. “I just want my dog back.”
Saved his life
Fadden has had the dog for almost two years, she said.
“A year ago from last Mother’s Day I was going to go see my mother in [Monmouth County],” she said. “I heard a dog yelping. I looked out my window. I saw a little black dog yelping, pinned under a car. The car had hit him. Traffic was stopped in both directions.”
People were staring at the dog under the tire, not helping, she said. Fadden put him in her house, went to see her mother, came back, and nursed him for a few days, she said. He had trouble opening his mouth, so she had to feed him with an eye dropper she got at the pharmacy until he healed.
“I nursed him back and he’s my kid,” she said, choking back tears. “This is my baby. I’ve had him for two years now.”
Police spokesman Stan Eason said on Wednesday that it was a “very active investigation” but declined to elaborate.
Sold in Journal Square?
Wednesday night, a young man called Fadden and said he had bought the dog for $100 in Journal Square. He said he had read the newspaper coverage and “felt really bad.” He told her he would return the dog to her after he left work.
The man, who Fadden said was in his twenties, came with his girlfriend and met Fadden Thursday morning.
“He gave me the dog and I gave him the $500,” Fadden said. “He told me that a guy was selling the dog in Journal Square, yelling, ‘Dog for sale.’ When I got him back, he had his veterinarian tags and my tags. Whoever took him never took the tags off!”
Fadden said that the dog was happy to see her, but has been barely moving. She said that now he is acting like the day she found him under the car.
“This dog went through a lot,” she said. “This is more than a dognapping. He was taken by someone who is a menace to society. I was given a piece of reliable information that scared me. He was in extreme unsafe situation for a period of time.”
She said the young man did the right thing by returning the dog. She also was grateful for all the neighbors who circulated the story. She said many people called her with information. She said one woman recently saw the car in Jersey City, with the same license plate number.
“I have to thank the Hilltop Neighborhood Association because they are the ones that put it up [on the internet],” she said. “There’s a lot of information from people in Jersey City over the internet, on Facebook and on Twitter. There was a lead that the dog might be on Baldwin and Vroom and I ran down there. Someone called in and said they saw the car. This struck home to many, many people.”
She said that as of Thursday, she still had never gotten a call from the Police Department to let her know what was going on.
“I went down to pick up the report, and I was told by someone in this office, ‘This is it,’” she said. “I asked, ‘Am I going to get a call?’ and they said, ‘This is it.’ ”
She said she hopes the police pursue the dognapper, repeating that he is likely a “menace to society.”