This is a bizarre story. Two guys attacked Lady Gaga’s dogwalker and stole two of her French Bulldog, shooting him when he resisted. He was in critical condition but now apparently is in stable condition. She is offering $500,000 for their return.
I could kind of understand trying to kidnap the dogs in order to hold them for ransom. But being willing to shoot someone seems way over the top. I don’t see how anyone could imagine they would get away with it.
Yeah, I wondered if the shooting had nothing to do with Gaga. If I shot a dogwalker, I would certainly try to make sure the dogs didn’t get hurt.
I hope she gets them back.
The average price of a French Bulldog is $1,500-$3,000, although the most expensive can run to $100,000. But I can’t imagine how you would go about fencing a hot dog. 
In other news, a dirty water cart has been stolen East LA. Police remain baffled…
Pun aside, that’s because you are not a criminal, associated with criminals and the black market.
I also am not, and I don’t know how I would go about selling a stolen canine, but I am very aware that it happens.
I think this is simply a case of stupid criminals. It obviously seems like they were going after ransom money, but it’s idiotic to throw in attempted murder in a dognapping scheme. Somebody got trigger happy when they should have just ran.
It’s idiotic to throw attempted murder, or even actual murder, into a convenience store robbery or a mugging too.
Criminals being stupid is not that uncommon.
Or when they should have pursued a more legal means of employment.
Wouldn’t be terribly hard. The dogs were stolen in LA; an ad could be placed on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace in San Diego or Fresno or Phoenix. In this case, the thieves were spectacularly unlucky in that they stole dogs belonging to a celebrity, so the dogs’ pictures are on the front page / cover of TMZ and People Magazine and so forth, but for an ordinary person’s dog nobody outside the immediate area is likely to know anything about the theft, and only a small percentage (3-5 percent) of dogs have microchips or other permanently affixed ID.
But surely these dogs are chipped, right?
So even if they sell them to someone, the first time it goes to a vet it will be discovered, I should expect.
I’m thinking they must want ransom not resale profits.
The chip is just under the skin. It can be removed.
Still, they would have to sell the dogs for much less than the market price. It wouldn’t be a great payday. Still, it would be better than a convenience store or a mugging.
However, it looked like the robbers had a nice car. They don’t appear to be just street thugs.
It looked to me like both robbers got out of the back seat. So there would have been a driver involved too.
I dunno, will it? Is checking for a chip a typical first vet appointment move? Seems like it’s only done on demand, when a dog’s owner isn’t identified. I honestly don’t remember if my dogs were scanned the first time I brought them to my vet (I was known to the vet from my previous dog but my dogs were new). Then again, they always whisk the buggers away for weight and nails…
I don’t know about all vets, but I do know that my vet does.
When our cat went missing for a couple of days, the local vet said they only scanned chips for animals they recognized.
If you recognize the pet, WTF is the chip for!?
She’s offering a $500,000 reward, no questions asked, for the return of the dogs. Am I the only one who thinks it’s odd that she’s not offering any reward for information leading to the arrest of the criminals who brutally shot her dog walker?
Yes, that struck me as odd.
Hollywood Priorities
To be fair, the police are going to be looking into that.
The police may have less interest in returning her dogs.
That’s crazy talk, man!