Family offering $12,000 for return of stolen French bulldog, latest in string of dog thefts

A family is offering $12,000 for the return of their French bulldog, which they say was stolen at gunpoint last week in North Hollywood.

Jasmin Valencia told CBSLA that her brother had left a Target with the 5-month-old puppy, named Seven, when a man brandished a gun and took the dog from him. Valencia is offering $12,000 for the dog’s return, no questions asked, the station reported.

The robbery was the latest in a string of dog thefts in the Los Angeles area. In a particularly violent heist last month, two men shot Lady Gaga’s dog walker, Ryan Fischer, and stole two of the singer’s three French bulldogs that Fischer had been walking.

Fischer was shot in the chest but survived. Lady Gaga had offered a $500,000 reward for the dogs’ return, and two days after they were stolen, a woman walked into the Los Angeles Police Department’s Olympic station and turned in the dogs at the front desk.

Police have not explained what role, if any, the woman may have played in the dogs’ abduction, nor have they identified her.

Earlier this week, the LAPD sought the public’s help in finding a dog stolen from a residence in the 800 block of South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles.

A woman — described as Black, about 5 feet 3 inches tall, 30 to 35 years old and having pink eyebrows — entered the residence about 2 p.m. on March 14 and carried off a 4-month-old gray and white Sheltie puppy, the LAPD said.

The suspect was last seen wearing a purple Lakers shirt and red pants, according to the police.

The LAPD asked anyone with information about the theft to call burglary detectives at (213) 996-1862.

City News Service contributed to this report.