Daytona Beach, FL – Authorities are searching for a woman who walked into the area’s largest non-profit animal shelter over a week ago and stole a puppy that had already found a new home.
The Halifax Humane Society says it happened around 3:15pm on July 25th at their shelter location on 2364 LPGA Boulevard. That’s just west of where LPGA meets Interstate 95.
HHS spokesman Tyler Stover says the woman left the shelter through the intake area that Saturday with a Chihuahua in her hands without paying for the puppy.
“In the last 4 years that I’ve been here, I don’t recall this ever happening,” Stover added. “It’s not a common thing. It’s kind of hard to believe someone would do it.”
The puppy’s name is Sharky, according to Stover.
Security video provided to the Daytona Beach Police Department by HHS shows the woman entered the shelter through the main entrance and spent time walking around the shelter and feeding treats to animals before leaving with the puppy. That video is posted above this article.
“[She] made what looked like a very planned effort to avoid the [security] cameras and sneak through the building,” Stover noted.
At the time of the theft, the puppy was being housed in the adoption area of the HHS shelter that’s normally reserved for smaller dog breeds, per Stover.
The theft wasn’t reported to DBPD until around 48 hours later by a shelter manager because the staff was dealing with a “large influx” of people at the time, according to the incident report.
The report noted that an HHS employee took the puppy from its cage, gave it to the suspect and told her to take the dog to a courtyard out back where prospective dogs and owners can get to know one another better.
It was from that courtyard, per the report, where the woman walked past a “Employees Only” sign and into the shelter’s quarantine area before going into a stock room in the intake building.
From there, officers believe the woman left through the intake entrance area, got behind the wheel of a red Chevrolet Silverado pick-up truck and drove away from the parking lot.
Police think the woman never put the puppy on the ground at any point after the shelter employee gave it to her.
The report shows that there was an adoption hold on the puppy at the time it was taken, meaning that someone had already paid a deposit for that dog, valued at $300.
There is no official description of the suspect given by DBPD.
Anyone with information is asked to call DBPD Detective Steve Yunick at 386-671-5240 or email him at yunicks@dbpd.us.
Suspect vehicle (courtesy DBPD)
Suspect with Sharky in hand (courtesy DBPD)
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