The Bizarre Story Behind The Ongoing Search For A Missing Harlem Dog

HARLEM, NY — Most searches for missing dogs involve social media posts, long walks and help from neighbors. This one involves 1 a.m. texts, torn down missing dog posters, police wellness checks and a Harlem resident and Columbia University student who wonders why her petsitter has also disappeared.

“This has all tested my patience," Harlemite and Columbia Business School student Jillian Solomon told Patch. "I feel panicked, tired, angry.”

Solomon, 27, has been frantically searching for her beloved Chihuahua Berkeley since Thursday, when she received a text from her dog walker saying the pup had run away.

Berkeley had been enjoying an extended visit with his dog walker Crystal — whose last name Patch is not publishing as we were unable to reach her for comment — because Solomon recently injured her foot, needed a walking boot and wasn't up to providing constant care, she said.

Asking Crystal to care for Berkeley seemed like a no-brainer because she'd been walking Solomon's two dogs since October 2021 and clearly loved them, cooking them chicken and even offering $2,000 to buy Solomon's second dog Luther.

“She was a good sitter...I trusted her with my dogs," Solomon said. "[The offer] now I see as a major red flag."

Solomon's trials began Thursday morning when she woke to a terrible and strange surprise: a text message, sent about 1 a.m., saying Berkeley had run away while on a trip with Crystal and her boyfriend.

Berkeley's disappearance was terrible, but news that Crystal had taken him on a trip was strange.

And Solomon still doesn't know where, because that was the last message she's since received from her former dog walker, she said.

Patch's multiple attempts to reach the phone number provided by Solomon were equally unsuccessful.

That hasn't stopped Solomon from trying to find her dog.

The desperate Harlem dog owner has since filed a police report, posted missing signs across the neighborhood and on social media, reached out to Crystal's friends and gone to knock on her door several times, Solomon said.

None of these efforts has yet to prove successful.

The NYPD confirmed a petit larceny report was filed by a 27-year-old seeking the return of her dog and noted the investigation remains ongoing.

Solomon also called in a wellness check for Crystal from the NYPD, but no one answered the door, she said.

Her own visits to Crystal's apartment Friday and Saturday — and her refusal to even say in which ZIP code Berkeley was lost — only succeeded in cementing her concern.

The second time Solomon visited Crystal's home, a roommate yelled through the door that Crystal had moved out, according to Solomon.

But Solomon later received a NextDoor message — reviewed by Patch — from a woman who said she was a neighbor of Crystal's and that she'd recently seen the dog walker in their building.

Solomon and a friend returned Saturday, knocked again on the door and begged two residents inside to give her Berkeley back.

"Give me my dog back, give me my dog back," Solomon cried.

Solomon heard someone say "We don’t have your dog," she told Patch. But she heard something else: barking.

"Let us see the dogs and we’ll leave,’” Solomon said.

The two people denied the request and repeated that Crystal no longer lived there, Solomon said.

Solomon also texted another dog walker who was friends with Crystal and received another strange reply, she told Patch.

"I haven't spoken to her in a couple of months," the dog walker replied. "And when I called her or text her she just tells me to block you."

Solomon began hanging lost dog posters around Central Harlem that include images of Crystal, she said.

The posters on Crystal's building's block have been ripped down, while the rest of the fliers remained untouched, according to Solomon and photos of the missing missing posters.

Finally, Solomon's search has involved reaching out to the dog-walking app Rover, which initially connected her to Crystal.

Rover temporarily suspended the dog walker's account and provided free flyers for Solomon to share, even though Berkeley's stay was not booked through the app, a spokesperson said.

"As pet parents ourselves, we join with Berkeley’s family in hoping that he is found quickly," the spokesperson said. "We have provided flyers to help bring Berkeley home and we are available to work with law enforcement should they reach out."

Meanwhile, Solomon held a "BringBerkeleyHomeGathering" on the corner of 115th Street and Manhattan Avenue Wednesday at 6 p.m., because she still believes Berkeley may come home.

But she also still wonders why Crystal hasn't been involved in the search.

"She's a young woman and she's messing up," Solomon said. "I just want my dog back."

If you see Berkeley, please call 480-244-8608.