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Lost Dog Held Hostage By Suspicious Elderly Women

Written by: Molly Weinfurter
Molly Weinfurter is a writer for iHeartDogs, and she’s passionate about helping animals in need. She volunteers for Bailing Out Benji and a local dog rescue.Read more
| Published on October 13, 2020

Finding a lost dog is tricky. After all, a dog on the run can make a lot of distance on foot. Many lost dogs are also too scared to let humans help them. But with Taco the Chihuahua mix, that wasn’t the case at all.

When Taco ran off, he didn’t make it far from home. Yet, it still took his mom nearly two weeks to find him. That’s because, along the way, a group of elderly women decided to hold him hostage, refusing to return him to his loving family. This made his mom work even harder to get him home.

Chihuahua on Couch
Image: @RossCoHumaneSociety/Facebook

Taco Runs Free

Like most dogs, Taco loves to run around after a nice bath. So, after giving her rescue dog a soothing spa day, Shawna Wallace let her little dog run outside and do his business. Unfortunately, Taco got a little too curious. When Wallace’s back was turned, Taco squeezed underneath the fence. Since he was still drying off, he was not wearing his collar.

“When I realized he was missing, I immediately posted about it on Facebook,” Wallace said. “When he didn’t come back that night, I started hanging up flyers and I taped a poster to my van.”

Soon after Wallace’s search began, she received an unusual phone call. A woman told her that she knew where Taco was, and she texted a photo of the dog to Wallace. Wallace determined that the dog in the photo was not Taco, but this wasn’t the last she’d hear from this woman.

Chihuahua Cuddling
Image: Shawna Wallace Facebook

Later, Wallace’s boyfriend thought he spotted Taco at someone’s home. When they knocked on the door, the woman who answered said she did not have Taco. But then, she admitted that she was the one who called Wallace. Something just didn’t seem right.

An Endless Battle

Wallace continued to have exchanges with several elderly women who seemed to be working together. One woman called to ask questions about Taco but then told Wallace that Taco was in a better home now before hanging up. Wallace suspected that the call was to discourage her from searching, but it only made her work harder to find Taco.

So, Wallace continued to post on Facebook while her boyfriend found the records of the phone calls they received. They quickly learned the names, addresses, and phone numbers of all the people involved. Weirdly enough, one of the phone numbers traced to a random man who was tagged in a comment on Wallace’s Facebook post. It was all starting to feel too weird to be real.

Chihuahua Sleeping
Image: @RossCoHumaneSociety/Facebook

At that point, Wallace was certain that the first woman had Taco or at least knew where he was. She eventually drove to the residence to confront the woman again. They got into a big argument and the woman threatened to call the police. Wallace confronted these women several times since then, but she always left empty-handed.

While Wallace considered contacting the police, she figured her case would be a low priority. So, she continued to think of ways to rescue Taco herself.

Taco Comes Home

The search for Taco took an interesting turn when an elderly woman brought the Chihuahua mix to the Ross County Humane Society. They scanned Taco for a microchip, but he didn’t have one. As part of the shelter’s protocol, they needed the woman’s information to take Taco in. But of course, the woman refused and stormed out of there.

Chihuahua Wearing Sweater
Image: Shawna Wallace Facebook

Only a few minutes later, a different woman came in with the same dog. She told them when and where she found the dog, but it was different from the previous woman’s story. When the shelter staff asked that woman for information, she cried and left the dog behind.

From there, the shelter staff looked online to see if they could find any missing dog posts for Taco. Sure enough, they saw Wallace’s post after only a few minutes of searching. They called her, and she was there to pick him up in only ten minutes.

The encounters were extremely weird and unusual, but Wallace is just happy to have her furry friend back home. Since the police were not involved, no charges have been made yet. But this incident reminds dog parents to get their dogs microchipped and to turn to social media if their dog is ever lost.

H/T: chillicothegazette.com
Featured Image: Shawna Wallace Facebook

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