Houston family claims home targeted twice by dog thieves
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The Ruiz family just can't seem to catch a break when it comes to man's best friend.
Just a few months ago, the family said two of their English bulldogs were stolen. This morning, it happened again.
Dora Ruiz says her surveillance camera caught two men breaking into her home on the northeast side, and leaving with their one-month-old English bulldog.
The video is very clear. You can see two men on camera break an electric fence, slide it open and get away scott free.
Dora and Victor Ruiz said they never imagined it would happen to them again.
The couple was at the gym when two guys pulled up in a white car, and pried through the fence.
When the homeowners got home, Dora said she knew something wasn't right.
"Automatically I said something's happened," Dora said. "Something bad happened here. I started crying because I knew."
The thieves tested to see if the security system was working, then kicked in the door and went for their target.
Surveillance video shows the men carrying the dog out, along with a new backpack and laptop.
The Ruiz family things it's probably the same guys who stole their dogs in November.
"Just too much of a coincidence. Somebody is watching us. Somebody knows we have these dogs," Dora said.
Even scarier, Dora believes she spoke to one of the thieves on the phone.
There was a reward poster hanging up on the fence about the first pair of dogs stolen.
In the surveillance, you can see one of the men dialing that number and making a call.
"He kept telling me, 'So, so we saw your dogs off of Little York and Hardy. Do you want me to take you to them?'" Dora said. "I said, 'Yes, but i'm not home.' I told him I wasn't home."
"They may come back or tell somebody else to come back, they have this, they have that," Victor Ruiz said. "That's what scares me."
A purebred English bulldog can cost up to $6,000 a piece. "Boss," who was taken today, came from a Florida breeder.
The dogs before that were shipped from Ukraine and Russia.
"Help us find them, you know," Dora said. "If anybody knows something, I hope someone says something. Do the right thing."
