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Couple Poses As Volunteers, Makes Off With Puppy From MaxFund

DENVER (CBS4) - A Denver animal shelter is asking for help with something it has never had to ask for in the past -- the safe return of a stolen puppy.

Two people pretending to be volunteers with the MaxFund shelter walked in Wednesday afternoon, took a puppy on a walk, and never came back.

There are suspicions that one of the people had been to the shelter before and knew what he was looking for.

Surveillance cameras show a man and a woman going into a puppy's cage, putting a leash on, and walking out. The puppy is named Nick and he's a Shar-Pei. He's tan in color with a darker muzzle, and he is neutered.

The man and woman pretended they were volunteers who had forgotten their badges. They were given spares but they didn't follow the usual procedures, which include signing in, signing the dog out, and leaving both their IDs and their car keys with the front desk while out walking the dog.

Staff members say they didn't look familiar, but they trusted them.

Stolen Puppy
(credit: CBS)

"It's like losing our family member and we are desperate to find him ... this is a breed that can often be aggressive if it's not in the right hands and so we really just want to make sure that the dog is safe; no penalty to the person," said Chelsea Manschot, MaxFund Volunteer Coordinator. "It's just a matter of getting our family member back to MaxFund."

Nick is about 20 to 25 pounds and has a microchip. That means if he's scanned the MaxFund's information will appear on the computer screen.

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