The Wag dogwalker who stole a Battery Park City couple’s Shih Tzu-Yorkie mix — prompting an intense social media campaign and the help of the company’s celebrity spokesperson Olivia Munn — wanted to gift the dog to someone else, court papers show.
Christian Madriaga — who remained mum as he was walked out of the NYPD’s First Precinct on Friday evening — had much more to say to cops when he was nabbed earlier in the day in Queens, according to the criminal complaint for his arrest.
Madriaga, 22, had originally been scheduled to walk the pooch, named Benny, on June 13, but canceled the appointment. When the new dog walker showed up, the “Shorkie” was nowhere to be found.
Surveillance footage from the couple’s South End Avenue apartment building showed a man walk into the building and take the elevator — and then leave shortly thereafter carrying the small dog.
When cops contacted Madriaga the next day, he admitted to them he was with Benny in Queens.
He was arrested shortly thereafter, at which point he fessed up to police that he “entered [the] apartment after the Wag appointment had been canceled” and “he had taken the dog for the purpose of gifting the dog to another individual,” the court papers show.
It wasn’t immediately clear to whom he had intended on giving the dog.
Madriaga was charged with burglary, petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property, according to the papers. He was released on his own recognizance following his Friday night court arraignment and is due back in court on July 16.
When reached at his Bronx home Saturday morning, Madriaga shouted expletives at a Post reporter and refused to comment further.
Meanwhile, Munn publicly thanked the NYPD on Friday night “for working so hard and moving so fast to bring Benny home.”