“He ran up to me and I gave him the biggest hug,” she said Tuesday after police recovered her pet. “He was so happy. I was so happy.”
The reported robbery seemed especially cruel because Worthy’s first French bulldog died Aug. 15 when heavy rain inundated a canine day-care center in Northeast Washington, drowning 10 dogs. She got Hendrix in September, and it did a lot to ease her grief, she said, when the brown-and-white fur ball laid his head on her lap and nuzzled.
After receiving what she took to be a social media ransom note, Worthy contacted D.C. police and “let us know that she was in contact with somebody who claimed to have her dog,” said Cmdr. Jeffery Kopp, head of the department’s violent crime suppression division. He declined to discuss details of what happened next. But on Monday, he said, officers went to the home of the person who had sent the Instagram message. After retrieving the dog, they brought him to a police station.
Kopp, speaking at a news conference Tuesday, said the person apparently had contacted Worthy after seeing her posts on social media. Kopp did not say whether any money changed hands during the police operation. He said the person was not arrested, yet “is not fully cleared either,” and that detectives “are trying to find the people responsible for the robbery.”
In recent months, D.C. has seen a rash of brazen dognappings, with robbers targeting pricey breeds such as French bulldogs. Authorities have warned owners of such dogs to be especially vigilant.
Worthy said that when she walked into the police station to be reunited with Hendrix, she could see only his perky brown ears sticking up from behind a desk — yet she knew right away it was him.
“At first when he came back, he didn’t want to leave my side,” she said. “But now he’s getting a little back to normal. The best part is, he’ll be sleeping in my bed again tonight. Right where he belongs.”
The robbery, recorded by a security camera, happened Saturday afternoon outside Worthy’s Northeast Washington apartment building when a young person in a ski mask, carrying what appeared to be a Taser, came up the front steps behind her. According to Worthy, the assailant said, “Give me your dog or I’m going to kill you.” She reluctantly handed over Hendrix.
A police report described the robber as a male, 5-foot-5, with a slim build, wearing “a black coat, light denim jeans and colorful shoes.” The suspect, with Hendrix tucked under an arm, got into a black Nissan with tinted windows and paper license tags.
Afterward, Worthy, a special-education teacher at a D.C. public school, told her story to local media outlets. She hired a private investigator. She started a crowdfunding campaign to raise reward money for the dog’s return.
She said she was suspicious when she received the Instagram message from a person claiming to have Hendrix, and she worried about being robbed again. “If something is stolen and you find it, why not just give it back to the person?” she said. She said she contacted D.C. police and the hired investigator.
By Tuesday afternoon, Hendrix was home resting in his dog bed, seemingly in good health, although Worthy said she plans to take him to a veterinarian this week, just in case. Meanwhile, she fed him salmon, the food he likes best, and watched him play with a chewed-up stuffed chipmunk, his favorite toy.