A disabled St Albans man has been reunited with his beloved dog, a fortnight after it was snatched from him in broad daylight.
Andrew Schembri, who uses a walking frame or a wheelchair to get around, was a few doors away from his Avondale Avenue home on August 10 when a white SUV stopped, a woman got out and grabbed ‘Muffin’.
“He’s a bit traumatised by it,” Andrew’s younger brother Mark told Star Weekly.
“It’s pretty heartless. A woman pulled over, grabbed the dog, saying it wasn’t his.”
Andrew tried to put up a fight, but he was ignored by the woman.
“She said ‘It’s a very cute dog, I like this dog, I can’t understand what you are saying’,” Mark said.
“My brother has a bit of a speech impediment. She didn’t make an effort [to find out who owned the dog], didn’t knock on any doors.
“If she had any concern for him or the dog, she’d have made an effort.”
Mark made a public plea to the unknown woman, believed to be in her late 30s to early 40s, to return the two-year-old Maltese Shih Tzu cross.
He called police to report the theft and also put an ad in both the Melton and Brimbank editions of Star Weekly calling for Muffin’s return.
“No charges will be laid if the dog is returned safely,” the August 23 ads read.
Then, just moments before Star Weekly was scheduled to take a photo of Andrew last Thursday, his dog walked back into the house.
“Unbelievably, the dog was returned this afternoon, not long before your photographer arrived,” Mark said.
He said Andrew and their father Reno were waiting for the photographer when Muffin ‘miraculously’ walked in.
“Dad did recall hearing a car speed off,” Mark said.
“We did not see where it came from or who returned her, but I think the woman who took her saw the ad I placed in the paper, got scared and dumped her in front of our house.”
Keilor Downs Police Constable David Attard, who was notified about the theft, said he was glad the story had a happy ending.
So is Andrew, who celebrated his 40th birthday last week, with Muffin back on his lap.
