A dozen canine price greater than $100,000 had been stolen from a pet store in Gardena on Tuesday throughout a heist caught on digital camera.
Safety digital camera footage confirmed 4 masked males break into High Canine Pet Retailer on Rosecrans Avenue at 1:13 a.m. After breaking the entrance door lock, the lads are proven rolling out cages stuffed with canine and securing them behind a white Chevy van. One of many males was captured on video grabbing puppies and throwing them into the van.
“It was a shock waking as much as that decision,” retailer co-owner Andres Avalos mentioned. “We obtained that decision from the alarm firm about 1:16, 1:17 [a.m.], and we woke as much as a stunning name.”
The Gardena Police Division didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Avalos mentioned 12 purebred French bulldogs, together with a 10-month-old present canine named Roll X, had been stolen.
The pet retailer homeowners are licensed breeders and well-known within the Gardena canine group, he mentioned. They opened High Canine Pet Retailer about six months in the past, the place they breed canine and promote a spread of pet gadgets together with leashes, bowls, cages, and pet dietary supplements.
Avalos suspects the group of males had been to the shop earlier than based mostly on the video.
“The best way they had been simply getting across the retailer on the whole, they needed to have been there to buy one thing or go searching as a result of we’re new to the world,” he mentioned. “We get quite a lot of new clients.”
Avalos mentioned he and the opposite retailer proprietor usually convey the canine house with them after closing store. However on Monday night, they left the canine within the retailer.
“It was simply one in all them nights,” he mentioned. “We had been drained and we had loads occurring that day. We had been like, ‘We’ll take them house tomorrow.’ That tomorrow by no means got here.”
One thief additionally broke into the shop’s money register and stole about $2,000 in money, Avalos mentioned.
“It’s laborious [financially] particularly with the vacations being across the nook, but it surely’s a burden on the household and that’s how we make our dwelling,” he mentioned. “It’s a troublesome loss for us.”
Group members are flooding social media hoping to help within the seek for the canine, reposting video of the heist and data on whom to contact with the whereabouts of the canine.
High Canine Pet Retailer is providing a reward of an undisclosed quantity for anybody who might help discover the canine, Avalos mentioned.