NORTHAMPTON — For the second time in 11 days, Northampton Police were at the center of a dramatic rescue of a stolen animal, this time a Chihuahua that was dog-napped in West Springfield on Thursday and recovered on the streets of Northampton after heads-up police work.
West Springfield Police say a woman who claimed to be the dog’s owner nabbed the pet from the home of another woman on Windsor Street in that city around midday Thursday and then fled in a green Ford Taurus. The latter woman had adopted the dog, which had spent five days in the Westfield Animal Shelter in mid-August, according to police and shelter employees interviewed by the Gazette.
“She got information of who had the dog and where the dog was,” West Springfield Officer Dan Felix said of the woman who took the dog from its most recent owner while she was at home. “She scooped it up and left with it.”
The dog had been picked up as a stray by animal control officers Aug. 17 and given the shelter name “Frank,” said Margaret Terkelsen, assistant manager at the Westfield Animal Shelter, which serves West Springfield.
“The current owner came and picked it up,” Terkelsen said, of the dog’s brief time in the shelter.
After learning of the dog-napping Thursday, West Springfield broadcast an alert to police departments in the region to watch for the green Ford Taurus. It was Northampton Police Sgt. Greg Korepta who noticed the car while working a traffic detail at the roundabout construction project on Pleasant Street.
Northampton Police and detectives then stopped and converged on the vehicle where they found and took possession of the Chihuahua.
“Northampton was on the ball and found the car,” said Felix, the West Springfield officer.
Northampton Police took custody of the dog until its current owners could pick it up, Capt. John Cartledge said.
Felix said no criminal charges are being filed and that the parties involved are expected to resolve the matter as a civil case.
“They got the dog back, they were happy with that,” Felix said.
The incident is the second time in recent weeks that Northampton Police have been involved with rescuing stolen animals. On Aug. 20, the department’s officers solved a cat-napping case when they recovered a kitten named Flint that had been abducted by two Northampton women from the Dakin Humane Society’s Springfield Adoption Center. The cat was recovered from a city home by Det. Brendan McKinney and Officer Doug Dobson.
Dan Crowley can be reached at dcrowley@gazettenet.com.