The incident happened at around 2:30 pm on Saturday at 88th Avenue in Ozone Park.
The incident was captured on surveillance video, which shows the thief engaging with victim Carlos Gil, a admired mixed breed named Off-White who is not yet 1 year old.
Gill was enjoying the nice weather with the puppy and the other dog when the man on the scooter climbed up.
In the video, he is seen petting the puppy and then picking it up.
He then tries to proceed on the scooter while holding the dog, and Gill can be seen coming inside and trying to stop him.
“When he took off on his bike, I tried to push him,” Gil said in Spanish. “He ran, but I thought he’d hit a pole. Because I wanted to get him out.”
In the end, the thief was able to drive around him and sped away.
The family is sad, saying that they consider the puppy to be a member of the family. They don’t even know or even recognize the person who did it, and it’s not just their human family that’s hurting.
Off-White’s best friend, a dog named Remy White, was devastated.
“They usually see each other every day, whenever he walks in, we see each other,” said Felix Nunez, Remy’s owner and a friend of the victim’s family. “The dog is also very friendly.”
The Gill family said Off-White had been with them for less than a year, and they dressed her in matching outfits.
“We really want to bring the dog back, it is so much part of the family, and it is very sad to learn that he is gone,” said relative Alonso Gil.
And while Off-White’s human family misses him, his canine friends also wonder where he went and when he’ll be back.
“She wanted to come here herself, so I bought here,” Nunez said. “She was trying to run over there.”
There are no arrests, and the investigation is ongoing.
Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or, for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
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