14 DAY TRIAL // 7-year-old Mia Bendrat of New York received her stolen dog back right on Christmas day, after it has been taken from her one day before.
She never expected to retrieve her Cavalier King Charles spaniel, even telling her mother she had lost it to the Grinch, the NY Post writes.
“I couldn’t sleep last night without Marley smiling,” Mia says.
Relieved mother Angie Estrada dubs her getting back the pooch a miracle.
“It’s a Christmas miracle. Oh, yes!,” she tells reporters.
It appears a Good Samaritan by the name of Tena Cohen went shopping at Greenmarket in Union Square when she noticed a man was trying to sell the dog. It had been lifted from a Washington Heights grocery, the same day.
“It looked nervous and sad, and was kind of an older dog. [...] I figured it was stolen,” Cohen says.
The man advertising the sale pointed to a second man, introducing him as the owner. The seller looked “very stoned, on drugs,” she describes. “He said he paid $3,200 (€2,417) for the dog, and had it for years,” Cohen adds.
She insisted on keeping the animal, even as the man rejected her original offer of $100 (€75). She went the extra mile, and purchased merchandise worth $220 (€166) with a debit card at a nearby Staples, which she then exchanged for cash, and bought the dog.
She took it to a vet, who contacted the Cavalier Rescue USA organization. They had read a story about the lost dog in the Post, and helped return it to its owner.
Police were also called in to look into the two men attempting to sell the dog. Although they left by the time law enforcement arrived at the scene, one of them was apprehended soon after.
Brad Bacon, of Washington Heights, 29, is being charged with grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property.
Earlier today, we reported about another random act of kindness that went on before the holidays. A man picked up the bill for groceries for an Altoona, Iowa family. He and his family paid $211 (€159), and never left their names or contact information.