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Tainted Meatball Might Be Cause Of A Dog's Death

LONGMONT (CBS4) - The third case of intentionally poisoned meatballs in a month may have killed one dog.

The latest incident happened in Longmont. Previous cases occurred in Gunbarrel in Boulder County.

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A meatball found laced with rat poison (credit: CBS)

The Boulder County Sheriff's Office didn't find out about the latest case in Longmont until they saw a report on TV. They say it could easily be the work of a copycat.

Longmont resident Gail Schipper knew something was wrong when her dogs got sick. When she found meatballs laced with poison she called police.

"It seems it needs to be somebody who lives in this neighborhood who walks by our yard," Schipper said. "It doesn't make sense that it would be somebody just randomly targeting us."

A year ago Schipper received a vulgar, threatening letter to quiet her dogs. She now believes it's all the work of the same person.

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A threatening letter left for Gail Schipper about her dogs (credit: CBS)

"We think our yard has been targeted more than once because we found a zip-lock baggie with some d-CON pellets in the yard a week before we found the actual meat with d-CON pellets in it. So we have to expect they are going to come back," Schipper said.

Police say poison-filled meatballs were found at two other homes on Schipper's block in May. There may also be a fourth victim. Neighbor Colette Lotter says her son's healthy dog died suddenly a month ago.

"One afternoon began vomiting; vomited on and off through the evening," Lotter said. "The next morning the dog was pretty weak and my son, I told him to call the vet."

Lotter says afterwards she found what could have been a meatball in her backyard.

"We are looking into the connections between Gunbarrel case and the case here," Sgt. Matt Cage with Longmont police said. "There are some differences that have already been noted but we are not ruling out that they are related."

In April, the Boulder County District Attorney's Office increased the reward for information leading to an arrest to $4,500 in the Gunbarrel case. The suspect will face felony animal abuse charges.

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