Video shows heartless thieves tossing French bulldog puppies into van during $100K heist
An infuriating surveillance video from a California pet store showed a dognapping crew grabbing a dozen French bulldog puppies worth $100,000 and callously tossing them into their getaway van.
The brazen heist occurred at Top Dog Pet Store in the 2500 block of Rosecrans Avenue in Gardena around 1 a.m. Tuesday.
Security footage from the business captured a large white Chevrolet van pulling up to the store and letting out four masked robbers, reported the station KTLA.
The thugs broke into the pet shop, triggering an alarm and disturbing the dogs sleeping inside, who began barking wildly.
Ignoring the noise, the bandits methodically grabbed hold of several large cages housing high-priced French bulldog puppies — including a show dog named “Roll X” — and wheeled them outside to the van.
Some of the suspects were then seen on video roughly grabbing the tiny pooches by the scruff of their necks and hurling them into the back of the vehicle.
“They literally grabbed them and tossed them in the van like they were stuffed animals,” said Andres Avalos, the owner of the ransacked store. “It’s horrible.”
The robbery lasted only a few minutes from start to finish, Avalos said.
The dognappers got away with 12 purebred canines intended for breeding, along with $2,000 pilfered from the store’s cash register.
“It’s a big financial loss,” Avalos said. “The dogs were [worth] over $100,000… with the dogs being gone, it’ll be tougher to get by now.”
Avalos said he was concerned for the pups’ well-being and was offering a sizeable reward for information leading to the Frenchies’ safe return, no questions asked.
“We love our animals,” he said. “It’s just frustrating knowing they are out there and we can’t do anything about it.”
Police in Gardena said they were investigating the robbery.
There has been a spate of thefts across the US in recent years targeting French bulldogs, which cost between $3,000 and $9,000 each and can be sold at a substantial profit on the black market.
The most notorious such heist occurred in February 2021, when Lady Gaga’s two Frenchies, Koji and Gustav, were snatched by gun-toting crooks who shot and seriously wounded her dog walker in Los Angeles.
The Grammy Award winner’s beloved pets were safely recovered two days later, and the culprits were subsequently arrested and brought to justice — with the triggerman in the armed heist receiving a 21-year prison sentence for an attempted murder conviction.
