HollyMatkinConcord, NH – An Iraq War veteran’s said that a man shoved her to the ground and stole her service dog on Thursday afternoon.
Ashley McCall said she and her 3-year-old pitbull, Jax, had just finished taking a walk and were getting into her vehicle to go run errands when a stranger walked over to her and began asking questions about her dog, WHDH reported.
“He starts asking me questions about what kind of dog he was, what his name was and then wanted to see the dog. And I told him, I really need to get going,” McCall said.
But the man grabbed the vehicle’s door handle and opened it.
“So I shut it back and as I do that he takes me and slams me to the ground and then takes Jax and gets into this silver Ford Focus and leaves and starts speeding off,” McCall told WFXT.
The man threw Jax’s service vest and leash out of the waiting suspect vehicle before he and another man fled the area.
“I’m screaming at him, this is my dog, what are you doing, you can’t do this! He just takes off,” she said.
The dognapper and another man had been sitting in the vehicle all morning, local flower shop owner Fred Keach told police.
Keach, a former law enforcement officer, became suspicious of the men and walked over to see what they were doing.
He said the men told him they were waiting to pick someone up, but that Keach didn’t buy their story.
“In this day and age when everyone has a cellphone, you can pick up the phone, call, and ask them where they are,” Keach told WFXT, “So from the beginning it looked like there was some ambush that was about to happen at some point.”
Keach provided investigators with a description of the suspects and their vehicle, and also caught the car’s license plate number.
McCall’s husband, Christopher McCall, said that Jax is trained to assist his wife with her anxiety and depression.
“Ultimately, we just want the dog back. He’s a family member. He’s not a pet. He’s a family member,” he said.
According to WHDH, the couple has already announced a $500 reward for information that leads to Jax’s return.
The McCalls have also started a GoFundMe campaign to raise additional reward funds.
Somebody knows who did this. Spread the word so we can bring the suspects to justice.