Red-handed: CCTV of the burglars with the dog, circledWhen her beloved puppy was stolen in a burglary, Lucy McNaught didn’t wait for the police to act.
She took matters into her own hands – by tracking down CCTV images of the thieves and putting them on the internet.
She then handed them to police, and while Rocco, a ten-week-old Staffordshire bull terrier, has not been found, a suspect has been arrested.
Last night, the distraught owner said: ‘They also took a safe, but I’m not bothered about anything else, I just want Rocco back.’
Miss McNaught, 21, said that after the burglary her boyfriend noticed a neighbouring house had a CCTV camera installed and asked the owner if she would check the images.
She did, and they showed two thieves striding down the street carrying Rocco.
Miss McNaught uploaded the film to YouTube and set up a Facebook group called Who Stole Rocco, which has drawn more than 1,000 members.
She is offering a £750 reward for the pet’s safe return and has printed wanted posters featuring images of the raid.
Rocco, she suspects, may have been sold to an unsuspecting new owner, and she is hoping her internet campaign will help track him down.
The burglary happened just after 10am on January 19 at Miss McNaught’s home in Strood, Kent.
Missing: Rocco is ten weeks old‘I went home from work to check on Rocco during my lunch hour,’ she said. ‘I got in at about 1.15pm to find the back door had been smashed through. There was glass everywhere.
‘Rocco sleeps in a pen which is blocked off by a safety gate to stop him getting out.
‘When he wasn’t there I realised that whoever broke in must have taken him because there was no way for him to get out on his own.’
Miss McNaught, who was given the dog as a Christmas present, went upstairs to find that the burglars had ransacked each room and had even used a shovel from her garden to remove a safe from a wardrobe.
That night she received a phone call from a friend saying her mother had seen two young men running from the direction of her street.
She said: ‘My boyfriend and his brother took a walk down to the shops to check the local CCTV but on their way they noticed that one of the houses had a camera outside the door.
‘He asked the owner if she would check the images and a little later she knocked on the door and handed over still images she had printed off from her CCTV.
‘I just hope that whoever has him now recognises the men on the pictures and the description of Rocco and realises what has happened and hands him back to us.’
The wanted poster reads: ‘These two broke into a house – stole a safe and Rocco.
Rocco is tan red with a white chest, a white left paw and black mask. He has three patches of missing fur on his back. Reward for Rocco’s safe return.’
Miss McNaught has also set up a confidential email address, missingrocco@hotmail.com.
source: dailymail
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