- Do YOU know the dognapper? Email: shannon.mcguigan@mailonline.co.uk
This is the terrifying moment her dog is brutally grabbed from her owner’s front yard in the middle of the day.
Three-year-old Chihuahua Fluffy was innocently playing with some other dogs when she was stolen from her home in Chapeltown, Sheffield.
Her owner Josh Fothergill had only been without the dog for a few minutes when a brazen thief kidnapped her around 6pm last Wednesday.
CCTV footage shows the woman playing with the pets before luring the two to a lower fence.
Then she grabs the defenseless Fluffy, tucks the dog under her coat and quickly runs away.
Three-year-old Chihuahua Fluffy was playing innocently in her owner’s front yard when she was kidnapped by a brazen thief
The woman lured the dogs to a lower fence outside the house in Chapeltown, Sheffield (pictured)
The Chihuahua’s owner, Mr Fothergill, was heartbroken and initially thought Fluffy had gone exploring as he couldn’t find her in the garden.
He searched in vain in the nearby cemetery, but when he got home, the CCTV footage confirmed his worst fears.
“I looked on the cameras and the woman walked up to the fence, petted her, gave her something and then walked to the other side of the fence,” he said.
“It looked like she wanted to get in through the fence, but there’s a fence to prevent that.”
He explained that he saw someone, who he thought was the attacker’s friend, waiting behind the wall, out of view of the camera.
Mr Fothergill added: ‘She went back downstairs and started teasing her again. She gave her something, you could see, she gave her something.
‘Then some girls came by and pestered her and walked away, and she climbed up and petted the dog over the fence.
The shameless thief quickly tucked the puppy under her coat before fleeing (pictured). Distraught owner Josh Fothergill is now appealing to the public for information.
‘The next moment she grabs it, gives it to her boyfriend, boyfriend wraps it in a coat. Then you see him walking by with it under his arm.’
The distraught owner is now calling on anyone with more information to come forward in the hope of being reunited with his beloved pet.
He spent the entire Thursday morning collecting CCTV footage in an attempt to get a clear picture of the woman and the man who filed the complaint.
By making the clip public, he hopes someone can identify the dog thief.
MailOnline has reached out to South Yorkshire Police for comment.