Global Courant 2023-05-12 05:26:03
A day after masked men beat him up, broke two of his ribs and stole his French bulldog during an early morning walk Ladera heights, the owner was reunited with his prized pup Bruno on Thursday.
Stefan Becker told The Times that an animal shelter called to tell him his almost 3-year-old dog had been turned over to it.
‘It’s our Bruno. We found him safe and sound!” he said in a text message.
Becker said he was walking with Bruno around 5:45 a.m. Wednesday when he was confronted at the 6400 block of Wooster Avenue by a group of three or four men getting out of a silver Toyota Camry. The men, wearing hoodies, gloves and ski masks, beat Becker and took his dog, he said.
A man yelled, “Give me the dog!” Becker said.
Becker said a man punched him in the face and knocked him to the ground. Bruno ran off and one or two men started kicking Becker in the torso, he said, breaking two of his ribs.
A man ran after Bruno and picked him up as he “screamed and screamed,” according to Becker. The men got into the Camry and drove off, he said.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has not made any arrests in the case.
The robbery was the latest in a string of French bulldog thefts in Los Angeles in recent years. In 2021, Lady Gaga’s French bulldogs were stolen after thieves shot her dog walker in Hollywood.
