Caught on surveillance camera stealing dog (Video)

Melissa Cortez was frantic when she couldn’t find her 10-month-old pug, Andrew. She worried he somehow got loose from her home in Riverside, California. Then she saw the shocking surveillance footage from a neighbor’s home that showed Andrew had been abducted, allegedly by a Spectrum cable technician, who was seen taking the dog and putting it in a company van. The broadband and cable providers already have a pretty scummy reputation for hidden fees and inconvenient setup times, but I’m not sure they’ve ever committed a cardinal sin — until now.

“He opens [the gate] oh so cautiously and just enough that he can pull Andrew out,” said Cortez. “Seeing that it was an employee usually people trust into their homes is infuriating.” She said she called the cable company but got the run-around so she posted the footage on Social Media with this message: “Spectrum, one of your drivers took my dog.” That got ignited a firestorm. Less than 24 hours later, Spectrum security had returned Andrew to her. “I was angry and upset at first, just thinking that someone took him, but to see someone who people usually trust to be in their homes felt like an even bigger violation,” said Melissa.

She saw the shocking surveillance footage

“It is extremely heartbreaking to see his little self just go up to the gate not knowing what was going to happen,” she said of the dog’s theft. Now, she’s just happy to have him home. “I was beyond ecstatic to get him. So thankful,” she said. Spectrum’s head of security brought the Pug back to her. Spectrum said the employee has been “terminated.”Cortez said she has filed a police report and wants the technician who took her dog to face criminal charges. “What he did was commit a crime and I expect him to be punished under those terms,” she said. Watch the video, the incident was shared on social media and quickly went viral as people expressed their horror.