If an Alexandria couple had not checked their home security cameras while they were out of town last week, they might have come home to a tragedy.
Heather Dinsmore, her husband and their three dogs were visiting family in New Jersey when she says she checked her home security camera alerts on Feb. 6 and saw a neighbor throwing chunks of ground meat into their fenced-in yard.
“Right in front of our camera and started breaking out pieces of something in a bag and just tossing it into the yard,” she said.
Her husband drove back immediately and found the meat, which their dogs likely would have eaten immediately as soon as they were let into the yard.
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“The cop said, ‘Well, let me call Animal Control and see if they can get it tested,’” Dinsmore said. “Animal Control came and took it, like, Monday evening, and Wednesday afternoon they called and said it was rat poison.”
Dinsmore said she and her husband have tried to be conscientious about noise and not leaving the dogs in the yard to bark. But, she said, it was pretty clear the neighbor found the dogs annoying. That was mentioned in an apology letter he left in their mailbox the day after police took a report.
“I don’t know if they’re going to throw more stuff or if they’ve been doing this and we just haven’t realized, or we just go out the front door and don’t let the dogs go in the backyard at all,” Dinsmore said.
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The crime is considered a misdemeanor in Virginia. It would be a felony if the dogs had eaten the poisoned meat and died.
Alexandria’s crime data base says the matter has been referred to the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office.
