Family Finds Stolen Dog After Thief Walks Him Past The House

Many of us have felt the pain of a missing dog and sometimes, things don’t turn out the best. That wasn’t the case, however, for a Stanislaus County family that was reunited with their three-year-old dog almost 8 months after he disappeared.

The dog is a Chihuahua mix named Charlie. He is a playful pup and the Delgados have fallen in love with him.

“My cousin, it’s actually her dog, she was like sad about it and she thought it wasn’t going to return back,” said Greg Corona.

According to Corona, Charlie also tends to be a little curious. Charlie decided to wander away from his home in Patterson about eight months ago.

Eva Delgando, speaking in Spanish, told FOX40 that a neighbor saw the dog and dropped him and a mechanic in the nearby area. Delgado claims that the business owner said they never saw Charlie and she ended up giving up hope.

Things changed last Friday when a woman walked by the home with a dog that looked as if it was Charlie.

“Hey, Charlie, come here.’ I said, ‘That’s mine,’ and she said, ‘No, it’s my dad’s,’” Delgado explained.

Delgado said that Charlie was responding to her when she called him but the woman still insisted that it was her father’s dog.

That is when Delgado followed her and ended up back at the mechanic shop. The mechanic also denied that the dog was Charlie.

“He says, ‘I don’t have the papers on me, I have them in my house.’ I said, ‘No, you can’t have them,’” Delgado said.

As he continued talking, his story changed and he then said that he adopted the dog.

“I don’t think that’s like fair. It’s not your dog. You have no right to keep him if he has owners,” Corona said.

As it turns out, Delgado had Charlie registered and microchipped earlier.

“That’s when my aunt got the contact with the police,” Corona told FOX40.

A former Marine, Deputy Wilson, and a police officer from Modesto found the dog and confirmed that he was Charlie. He was back within an hour to his real family.

The family has not yet decided if they are going to press charges against the other family who stole Charlie from them.