A Sherman Oaks woman is offering to pay $500 to whoever returns her beloved, black Labradoodle Stella, after the dog was stolen during a robbery.
Barbara Goodhill doesn't care about the jewelry taken when burglars broke in through an upstairs window and ransacked her home Friday night. She is heartsick that her 4 1/2-year-old, 35-pound Labradoodle.
"They stole jewelry, they stole a computer, I still haven't figured out everything they stole because honestly all I care about right now is Stella," said Goodhill.
The thieves took a piece of her heart and she wants Stella back.
"The first thing in the morning, she races ahead of me and does her version of a happy dance, leaping and twirling. It resets my heart," Goodhill said. "I am so terrified for what she's going through now."
The burglars left behind her sheep dog Daisy, or Daisy may have been able to run away from them, she said. "My darling Daisy is so missing her little black sheep," Goodhill said. "She likes to herd Stella."
She immediately reported Stella missing to Home Again, the pet microchip company.
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The suspects apparently tried to return Stella, Goodhill said.
"They sent an alert out and within an hour I got a message that Stella had been found. They said she was at an animal hospital in Lawndale," Goodhill said.
Two men had brought Stella to VCA Advanced Care Center of Lawndale,
telling staff they'd found her, she said. But as the attendant got the microchip information, the men slipped out, saying they were taking the dog outside to go to the bathroom, and never returned.
The hospital has surveillance video and police are using it to help find Stella.
"I'm terrified. I don't know what her circumstance is," said Goodhill. "I know nothing and that as a pet owner is the biggest heartbreak."
Meanwhile, Goodhill has left $500 in cash at The Pet Doctors of Sherman Oaks with instructions to give it to whomever returns Stella to the clinic with no questions asked, after they confirm by microchip that the dog is Stella. The Pet Doctors of Sherman Oaks is at 13756 Ventura Blvd.
