Reporter rescues stolen dog during broadcast

A Boston reporter was covering a story on a recently stolen dog when she noticed a passerby walking with a pup that looked exactly like the missing pet.

On May 9, WHDH-TV reporter Juliana Mazza and her cameraman, John Gruice, were in a parking lot in Cambridge covering the recent theft of a 13-year-old German Short-Haired Pointer named Titus. Titus was reported missing from his owner’s car on May 7 and was last seen wearing an orange collar with a nametag. Surveillance footage revealed a profile of the man suspected of taking Titus.

Mazza told Inside Edition that, as she was filming, she spotted a man walking a Short-Haired Pointer with an orange collar. So, she approached him to ask if she could pet the dog.

“The first thing I did was I asked if I could pet the dog, because I wanted to get down to the nametag to be able to confirm that the name matched the name of the missing dog,” Mazza told the outlet.

According to the video of the interaction, which Mazza uploaded to Twitter, the reporter confirmed it was Titus and then began questioning the man who was walking him. After a rather confusing conversation, the man said that he had heard Titus barking in the car so he thought he would take him for a walk.

“You didn’t think to call the number on the tag?” Mazza asked the suspect during the video.

“I did, but then I tried using the phone and the phone was broken,” he responded.

Mazza called 911 and as the suspect stood nearby.

“He said that he was supposed to be walking a dog and he somehow grabbed the wrong dog,” Mazza told Inside Edition. “24 hours had gone by, and he never once had tried to call the police or try to call the dog’s owner, whose number is on the back of the dog tag.” 

Within minutes, the cops arrived and arrested the suspect, 29-year-old Kyle Gariepy, and charged him with larceny and breaking and entering into a motor vehicle.

Titus’s owner, Greg Siesczkiewiz, was beyond appreciative for the reporter’s quick thinking.

“I’m thrilled to have Titus back. I think he’s glad to have me back,” Siesczkiewicz told Inside Edition.

“Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that I would be the one to find the dog,” Mazza added.

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