A Las Vegas family has been reunited with their stolen Pomeranian after a frantic two-day search driven by neighbor security footage.
Jaelle Johnson, a Summerlin resident, discovered her dog Linus missing on Friday, Sept. 18 around 6 p.m. When she went to feed him. The dog had last been seen near the garage with her son.
“I run back outside, start screaming bloody murder. ‘Where’s Linus? Linus, Linus,’ and I have this gut-wrenching feeling like he’s not here,” Johnson told The California Post. “No neighbor took him. He’s gone. I just know that he’s gone because Linus always stays right around the bushes to pee.”
Johnson began canvassing her neighborhood and knocking on doors, urging neighbors to review their security cameras. The footage revealed a disturbing sequence: Linus running down the street pursued by a man, then hiding beneath a neighbor’s car as the same man closed in, and finally being carried away.
“I see him and little Linus running quickly back down the street from the house and this man is behind him in the frame, running after him,” Johnson said.
In one recording, Johnson heard a woman’s voice alongside the man. “She’s saying, ‘We have another order,'” Johnson recalled. “So I’m like, she’s a delivery driver.”
Johnson filed a report with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department but was told it could take up to 48 hours before a detective was assigned. She also reached out to local television stations to amplify the search.
A friend who works as a detective helped push the surveillance footage directly to investigators, accelerating the case. Johnson soon received the call she had been waiting for: “This is Detective Bianca. We have your dog.”
Linus was returned to the family shortly before midnight on Sunday, Sept. 20, roughly 54 hours after he vanished.
The dog’s condition alarmed Johnson immediately. “He’s so dirty. He’s black. He had just had a bath before they got him. Like, you can’t even recognize this dog,” she said. “He smells like smoke, like as if he was literally drenched in smoke.”
Linus appeared exhausted and possibly dehydrated, with dark urine and a reluctance to be touched. He mostly wanted to sleep, though he did eat his entire dinner and wagged his tail excitedly when Johnson held him.
For Johnson and her two children, the recovery restored a vital family bond. “Linus literally connects me to the greatest part of our family,” Johnson said, adding that when she’s away from him, “I lose like a part of my soul.”
The incident began Friday evening when Johnson returned from a family trip to California. Linus had been hanging around the garage area with her son before disappearing during the routine 6 p.m. Feeding time. Johnson’s police report lists the alleged crime as grand larceny, and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department continues to investigate the circumstances.
Police have not released additional details about potential suspects or charges in the ongoing investigation.