LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – The search is on for the person responsible for stealing a nonprofit’s 700-pound stuffed dog.
“Mr. Deeds,” is The Good Deed Project’s mascot. It was located Friday after video captured the dog being stolen early Tuesday morning.
The Good Deed Project Executive Director Mandy Telleria says her focus is now on finding whoever is responsible.
Surveillance video shows a black SUV circling the nonprofit’s complex the day before the mascot was stolen.
“On the footage, it shows that they stopped by three times,” Telleria explained.
Telleria theorizes the group likely unstrapped and unbolted “Mr. Deeds” during those visits too.
Then, around 4 a.m. Tuesday morning, the SUV came back. It then backs up against the mascot, and a group emerges from the car.
They knocked “Mr. Deeds” over onto their trailer, dragged the mascot into place, covered it with a tarp, and drove off.
“I was in disbelief,” Telleria said. “How are you going to steal a 700 pound, 10 foot tall dog?”
The story doesn’t stop there. Telleria shared that days later, they got a tip that the missing pooch had turned up at an Autozone across town.
“He was just there right in front of the Autozone with the truck, the trailer, the dog,” she described.
She says they called the police, but the driver unhooked the trailer and drove off.
Although the trailer was carrying “Mr. Deeds,” Telleria explained they’re still working to get the mascot back into their building.
Metro Police have impounded the trailer.
According to Telleria, no one has been arrested in connection to the theft.
Although she’s been able to laugh it off, the ordeal wasted time and caused stress on an organization whose focus is helping others.
“I would just say, if you’re thinking about doing something like this, think twice because you don’t really know how much it could affect somebody,” she says.
Anyone with information can call Crime Stoppers at (702) 385-5555, or The Good Deed Project directly at (702) 518-1555.
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