The Tukwila Police Department says that on Tuesday, March 13 at around 2 p.m., officers responded to the 400 block of Baker Blvd. (map below) for the report of a dog that had been stolen from outside of a restaurant.

The dog’s owner stated that a male had walked by her dog twice and on the third pass, grabbed her dog, unleashed him and took off running. The suspect was not located. The victim provided an excellent description of the suspect and provided officers with photos of her dog.

Yesterday, our rookie Officer Schneider – fresh out of the academy who was the handling officer for the original call – spotted the suspect in the 15400 blk of Tukwila Intl Blvd. The suspect was wearing more or less the exact same outfit that he wore during the initial theft and had a dog on a leash that looked just like the victim’s dog. With assistance from Officer Hernandez and Officer Kolstad, Officer Schneider contacted the suspect who couldn’t keep his lies straight. It quickly became obvious to everyone that this was the right suspect and dog.

King County Animal Control responded to the scene and checked the microchip on the dog which verified that the dog belonged to our victim. The victim responded to the scene and positively identified the dog as hers as well as identifying the suspect as being the same person that she had seen steal her dog.

While being taken into custody, the suspect put up a struggle, but was ultimately detained without issues. He was booked for theft.

Dog stolen on March 13th recovered by officers and returned to the victim. Suspect arrested for theft and booked https://t.co/eyqT4Qa03T pic.twitter.com/mVZjHyxXwk

— Tukwila Police (@TukwilaPD) March 18, 2018