‘Kept trying to hold onto the leash’: Thieves push St. Paul woman down, steal her dog

Mara H. Gottfried, Pioneer Press
Updated ·3 min read
18

A St. Paul woman is desperate to get her dog back after she was pushed down and robbed of her pet outside her home.

Two young men approached the woman in the Payne-Phalen area about 4 p.m. Wednesday and asked her about her dog, said Alyssa Arcand, a St. Paul police spokeswoman. They then pushed the woman down and took the dog, whose name is Clementine. It happened in the area of Westminster Street and York Avenue.

Clementine, who is also known as “Tiny Mae,” is a French bulldog-Boston terrier mix. She is mostly black with a white chest, and her most noticeable feature is that her front left leg is white. She weighs about 25 pounds and is microchipped. She has medical conditions and needs to be returned home to take her prescription medications or she could be at severe risk, said owner Greta Deane.

“I can’t fathom doing that to another person — taking their world away like that,” Deane said. She is offering a $1,000 reward for Clementine’s safe return; the dog hadn’t been found as of Thursday night.

Deane was returning from a walk with Clementine when two young people asked if the dog was a male or female. “They were making me really uncomfortable with the way they were aggressively grabbing at her and following me,” she said Thursday.

She thought she could get home safely, but one yanked Clementine’s leash and kept saying, “Give me the (expletive) dog,” Deane said. She started screaming for help. The other person yanked Deane down stairs and shoved her onto the pavement, which tore her clothes and cut her hands.

“I just kept trying to hold onto the leash, grip the leash,” but one of the suspects detached the leash from Clementine’s harness and ran away with the dog, Deane said. She said she chased them down the block and other witnesses were shouting at them, but the suspects got away. The young men appeared to be in their teens or early 20s.

Clementine is seven, and Deane’s been her owner all her life. “One of the most frustrating parts of this is I lived in fear of this happening,” she said. “I was terrified of this happening because you hear stories all the time of French bulldogs getting stolen.”

French bulldogs have become a target for thieves around the country because of their popularity and their value.

Deane said she carried a knife with her when she walked Clementine, but the attack happened too fast and she was trying to keep hold of the leash, so she wasn’t able to get the knife.

Deane’s mother, Robin Thoreson, had been on the phone with her daughter at the time and heard Deane begging the suspects to not take her dog. “They just shoved her down and she pleaded with them,” Thoreson said.

Police are asking anyone with information to call the robbery/homicide unit at 651-266-5650.

“Right now we want to make sure Clementine is found and is back home safe,” Arcand said.

Deane is fundraising for the reward fund at gofundme.com/f/help-clementine-come-home.

Related Articles