A US Airman stationed overseas in Japan says his beloved dog named Maverick and his car were stolen by his house sitter who apparently suffered a “mental break” before taking the pooch.
“I am looking for this person. He was housesitting for me while I am deployed with the Air Force,” Andrew Beckham wrote in a Nest alert shared on Facebook on April 3. “He has stopped all contact and taken Maverick and my vehicle.”
Maverick, the 11-year-old Siberian husky, was staying at Beckham’s Aurora, Colo., home with the hired helper when he was taken outside and put into the airman’s 2014 Subaru Forester the night he went missing.
Beckham shared a snap of the suspected dognapper and revealed he had captured the worker on video driving away with his car and dog.
“(The house sitter) is having a mental break of paranoia and has run away with my car and dog 4 days ago with no contact and no phone,” Beckham wrote on Facebook.
The frustrated dog owner claims he hired the man off Trusted House Sitters — which connects pet owners with suitable sitters — and has reached out to the company asking for help locating him and his dog.
“He has not been found and he has my dog,” Beckham wrote.
Doorbell camera footage captured the nighttime dog heist as the man guided the dog out the front door and into the driveway, according to an image obtained by Fox 31 Denver.
“It was hard to see on my camera because he was taking Maverick out at night and then going in the car without telling me where he was going,” Beckham told the outlet.
Beckham revealed he allowed the worker to stay at his house during his deployment.
An hour before vanishing, the man allegedly called 911, claiming someone was trying to break into the home.
“He seemed scared of something. I don’t know what, but he seemed really scared,” Beckham said.
Maverick weighs approximately 60 pounds, has a missing toe on his front left paw, has mild arthritis and has one blue eye and one brown eye, according to a missing dog poster shared by Beckham.
“I feel like I’ve lost a part of home. Like there’s a hole in my chest where he should be. Maverick has been with me through deployments, through long days, through lonely nights. Losing him, it’s just heartbreaking,” he told the outlet.
The pooch is microchipped and is listed on several lost pet sites.
Beckham warned people to “not chase, call or whistle as this may cause them to run in fear and into danger.”
Neighbors have joined in the search for Maverick dog and his alleged abductor, driving around the Colorado city looking for Beckham’s missing car, as other volunteers printed out missing posters and plastered them around the neighborhood.
“I’m a dog person. My husband is Air Force. So those two items just told me I needed to do something,” Beckham’s neighbor Carla Wise told Fox Denver. “I drove to the airport, looked at two different, both the west and east parking garages, drove each one for about an hour this morning to see if I could help find the car… but the dog, that’s the main thing.”
“He’s out there. We’re going to get him. We’re going to find him,” she added.
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