MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Dog owners in a Twin Cities suburb believe someone is deliberately trying to harm their pets.

Over the past several days in south Lakeville, they’ve found nails, screws and other harmful items hidden in food or treats, left outside for dogs to eat.

It’s easy to tell that Trucker, a golden retriever, is food motivated. So when he stumbled upon some late Thursday while out on a walk with high school student Seth Paulson, he went for it.

“I saw that it wasn’t something ordinary that a dog would eat and I told him to spit it out and saw it was a nail,” Paulson said.

“This is the piece of hot dog with about a one and a half inch screw in it.” his mother Kathryn Paulson said, looking into a plastic bag.

After the Paulsons found more metal-laden hot dogs, they decided to hit the pavement. Kathryn Paulson knocked on door after door warning neighbors, who looked in their own yards and found more hot dogs, as well as balls of steel wool with unknown capsules inside. Paulson noted it looked as if peanut butter was on it.

One street over, Lindsay Durland held 11 screws in her hand, all taken from her dog’s stomach. Both of her small dogs were hospitalized, one of which is still being treated.

“One is still in the hospital with extremely high blood pressure which they think is from these unknown pills,” Durland said.

Durland’s other dog, Yogi, swallowed a hot dog with open safety pins, he was just released. Both are on the mend, but recovery comes at a cost.

“Extremely expensive. Probably three grand, at least,” Durland said.

A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to help pay for Yogi and Pablo’s medical expenses.

Grateful though to still have two dogs, she’s chewing on one big question: Why go after dogs?

Lakeville Police say they are investigating this case and they want to hear from anyone else who may have had a dog injured. There were reports of another dog in the area, which passed away unexpectedly while on a walk, although it’s not clear if that incident is related.