A heavily-pregnant woman tracked down an alleged thief after her puppy was stolen from her garden in Hillhouse.
The owner of the dog, who wishes to keep her identity hidden from the thief, went into labour after searching for an hour for her purebred pedigree pug, Puglo.
Strapped with a newborn, the 19-year-old mum-of-two couldn’t search for the dog for over five weeks.
But her friend went just over a mile away to Birkby on St Patrick’s Day and got her beloved pet back.
The dog’s owner said: “A woman in Birkby had acquired a dog around the same time as Puglo went missing.
“So we went round to her house and she said, ‘I don’t even have a dog. It would be downstairs barking if I did.’
“Next thing, Puglo started barking from the top of the stairs and she slammed the door in our faces.
“We kept knocking on the door and said, ‘If you don’t answer we’re calling the police’.
“A man came to the door and said he’d got the dog off his brother, but we could take him to have his microchip checked anyway.”
Donaldson’s Vets confirmed that the dog’s microchip matched the owner’s details.
She said: “My oldest, who is only two, was so upset when Puglo went missing. He kept going over and getting into Puglo’s bed.
“As soon as Puglo came home, my son was really happy and the dog settled back in fine.”
“I hope the woman who had him gets at least a warning from the police because it is really wrong and unfair what she did,” she added.
“If she thought the dog might be stolen, she should have taken him to a vets to be scanned but she didn’t so she was basically handing stolen goods.”
A spokesperson for West Yorkshire Police said: “Huddersfield Police were contacted in late January regarding the alleged theft of a dog.
“A crime of theft was recorded and active enquiries remain ongoing by officers.”
