For so many, dogs are like family. And most would do anything to keep them safe.
That's why Stephanie Reed risked her own personal safety after someone stole her dog in Washington, D.C. on Labor Day.
Reed’s dog, Klaus, is back home, safe and sound, after a dramatic recovery in which Reed chased a Circulator bus to rescue her beloved pet.
Reed and Klaus have been together for nearly 12 years. He is a rescue and her constant companion.
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So, when she stepped out of the Room and Board store on 14th Street NW where she had been shopping on Monday afternoon, she was shocked to see he wasn’t where she had left him.
“It feels like a parallel universe where you don’t even own a dog anymore. And you just feel really guilty, like, I shouldn’t have put him out there,” Reed said. “My mistake. And, you know, your heart kind of breaks.”
What didn’t break was her desire to get him back. Reed filed a police report and began plastering the neighborhood with fliers.
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“I was just placing posters everywhere, I put them in Franklin and Dupont. I put them over in Logan Circle,” she said.
It was at Franklin Square where she got a lucky break. A worker with the DowntownDC Business Improvement District (BID) spotted Klaus with two young men getting on a Circulator bus.
The worker quickly dialed Reed’s number.
“He was very frantic because he was communicating with the bus driver,” Reed said.
He got the number of the bus and told Reed where it was heading.
“So, I jumped in my car and drove, I don’t know eight or ten blocks over this way,” she said.
As luck would have it, Reed spotted the bus near 14th and U and got the attention of the driver.
As the bus came to a stop, the two young men holding Klaus then got off.
“I jumped out of my car, and I ran over and I said, ‘You stole my dog!’” Reed recalled.
“I picked him up right away, and I saw the leash was attached, so I couldn’t get the leash back, but I did unhook it from the collar and then grabbed him and ran off.”
Reed says Klaus seems to be fine now. She’s calling the whole ordeal kind of a funny movie plot.
“So many people were sending messages and all of the good Samaritan tips, especially from the supervisor at Franklin Park… I mean that’s a very special individual, so thank you directly to him.”
The Downtown BID declined to comment.
