Sir Reginald von Bartlesby went missing after noon on Sunday, February 24th. He had his collar on with his information and ours including phone number and home address. After a few days, and no luck, we posted flyers around our neighborhood in the Cardinal Valley area to see if anyone had picked him up. We received a phone call on Sunday, March 3rd from a teenager saying he knew where our dog was and it was a difficult situation to explain, but he would bring the dog to us. When asked if he knew our address, he said he did, which he could have only gotten from Sir’s tags on his collar, seeing as we hadn’t put our address on the flyer. About 10 minutes later, the kid calls back and asks how much our reward for returning him was. We were skeptical, but told him the amount was $100 and that he would get it upon Sir’s safe return home and he said he would have Sir to us within an hour.

An hour passes and we call the kid back and ask where he is, to which he responds “I’m waiting on my mom to come get me“. We wait about 30 more minutes and call again…we get sent straight to voicemail. We wait about 10 more minutes and after doing some sleuthing find out the kids’ name, his mother’s name, and some other details about them through the wonders of Google and Facebook, we find an Instagram photo of the teenager and Sir. We call the number multiple times from Brian’s phone and it goes straight to voicemail…so we decide to call from Zak’s phone and the kid picks up. Zak introduces himself politely and asks if the boy’s name is [insert name here], to which the kid replies “How do you know my name?” and Zak tells the boy we’d like our dog back and the kid hands up on him. We proceed to call the police and are told that we have no case without proof that the dog is ours…even with vet bills and CKC registration. We call the number multiple times thereafter and get hung up on, sent to voicemail, etc while we continue to search the internet for more information on the phone number and the kid behind it and the Instagram photo.

When 5:30pm rolls around and we have no answer, we contact the mother [insert name here] through Facebook after seeing her son’s connection to her through the “Family” section on his Facebook profile. Zak writes her :

“Hello [insert name here], my name is Zak Crouch, and I’m messaging you to find some information regarding our lost dog. We were contacted by a [insert name here], who lists you on his Facebook profile as his mother, offering to return the dog in exchange for the reward we have offered. After a couple hours [insert name here] told us he was on his way to return our dog, and it has now been several hours after that, and we still have not received our dog. We tried contacting [insert name here] several times, until he finally told us that he doesn’t have the dog, his friend does. We still have no idea if they intend to return our dog to us. Any help you could provide would be helpful, and the reward for returning the dog is still available. The dog is a 4 month old Boston Terrier puppy, last seen on Dunkirk Road, near where we live. He is dark brindle, almost black, and white, and answers to the name of “Sir” or “Sir Reginald”. When he escaped our back yard, he was wearing a collar and tag with his name, our roommate’s name, our address, and our phone number. Thank you very much for your time. Again, my name is Zak Crouch.”

To which she replies :

“all that i know is last week [insert name here] asked me if he could bring home a dog they found and i told him no bc i already have a dog. he said the dog was at his friends house. then this morning when i was taking him and his friend to their other friends house we saw the poster. [insert name here]’s friend called you from [insert same name here]’s phone. i heard him tell you he knew where the dog was. I asked him when he hung up where the dog was and he said at his brothers friends house. after receiving this message from you i called [insert name here] and made his friend get on the phone and asked him for his parents number so i can try to locate this person who has the dog which i don’t know. of course [insert name here]’s friend said he had no way to contact his parents. so..i told him he needs to firgure it. our and get your dog bak to u. he said ok. i know where [insert name here]’s friend lives but i dont have the gas to waste to get there to try to find out where the dog is…i will continue to try to contact this childs parents to try to locate the dog for you. i’m extremely sorry this has happened and i will keep you posted. also, it was actually my son’s friend who called you from his phone, not my son.”

After Zak replied with a thank you she returned with :

“let me see what i can do…my number is [insert phone number here]…plz text or call so I know a number to reach you…i’m going to drive to my son’s friends parents and see if i can find where the dog is…once again i’m sorry…i wish i wouldve told my kid yes just so i would know where the dog is to return it. i’ll b in touch with anything i find out.”

After this, Zak continues to text with the Instagram teenager’s mother ::

So we try to get some sleep and let this woman work her magic,because as of this moment she was our only hope to getting the information we needed to find out where Sir went…considering the authorities have told us we don’t have a case and we were lost on every other outlet. So we continue to gather information on the people we know that are involved through the internet and other outlets and continue to wait for a call or text from the child’s mother. On Monday we wait until school lets out and she doesn’t get back to us, so Zak texts her back. Here are those screen shots :

Once we read this, we are heartbroken and back in panic mode. After having a meltdown over a lost lead and waiting on an answer to the questions about the latest people who have Sir, Brian and Kayti go to the County Attorney’s office downtown after reading online that they were open until 10pm. We get there, and they’re closed. So we run over to the Police Department on Main Street to find that all their windows are closed as well. While we’re frustrated over that loss, we get a call from Debbie from Lost and Found Lexington with encouraging words and extra help. We retreat to a friends’ house to take a breather and wait on information back from Zak and his conversation with the mother.

After about 30 minutes, Zak gets the information on the first teenager’s friend whose name we had already found and whom we had already contacted through Facebook and makes a phone call to his parents to figure out where Sir went from their house. He is given a phone number of the person who was last to have Sir in their possession. After calling the number and being sent to their voicemail, he reaches his private investigator friend to track down the address behind the phone number and after a bit of sleuthing finds the address to which he sends to Brian and Kayti to go to. Brian and Kayti go to the address and speak to the woman who last had Sir and this third person turns out to be an older lady who has a Boston Terrier of her own, and when the two didn’t get along, she took Sir to the nearest gas station and gave him to the first interested party…because in her words “you never know who could pick up a dog like that from the pound…”.

After speaking with her for a bit, we find out that her grandson told her about the boston terrier and that the people who had him were giving him away for free to whoever was interested. They wouldn’t let her come to their house to get them, so she met them at the Kroger on Boston Road to pick Sir up from them. She was told by her grandson and by the people who had Sir that the he came from an old woman who had died, so he didn’t have a home. Which come to find out through the first mother is the story that she was told by her son. So all in all these teenagers had found Sir, made up a lie about him, took his collar off, and kept his true ownership a mystery to keep their lies safe. The woman was appalled and shocked by our claim and upset that she didn’t keep Sir so that she could give him back to us as well. She also went on to tell us that she gave Sir to these anonymous people the day he went missing. Sunday, February 24th.

After speaking with her for a bit, we ran over to the Thornton’s she had given him away at on South Broadway and Gibson and asked if we could see the video from that day to which we were told that the employees didn’t know how to work the video system and couldn’t give us the video anyways because we’d have to talk to the police to get it or to corporate.

So we immediately call the cops.

We’re frustrated. Tired. Annoyed. And ready to get something done.

The cops come to the Thornton’s and we explain the situation with all the information above and we are told that we CAN file a report if we so choose…but it won’t help us get our dog back. Our best bet now is gathering all the information we can on the people who took the dog from the old lady and try to go from there. Part of us really doesn’t want to press charges, because what is it going to do? Buy us a new dog? Pffbt. Like that makes any difference. But part of us is angry that these kids thought that making up this lie and removing his collar would save their butts…then trying to call us a week after they give him from person to person to try and collect the reward money? They didn’t even have Sir when they called! The old woman had already given him to some anonymous folks at the Thornton’s that very same day!! They probably tried to call through their contacts to find Sir and when they couldn’t they quit trying to contact us…but they made their first mistake by calling us in the first place, and by posting pictures of Sir on the internet with themselves and so on and so forth. Part of us really wants to teach these kids a lesson…but will it matter? Will it bring Sir back? No.

So here we are. On a mission to find the most adorable and loving puppy we’ve ever owned. One step at a time.

I’ll keep this as updated as I possibly can throughout the case.

For those who don’t know us personally, here is a brief description of the names mentioned ::

Brian – Roommate #1. Offical owner of Sir Reginald von Bartlesby.

Kayti – Roommate #2. Best friend of Brian and girlfriend of Zak. Official snuggler of Sir Reginald von Bartlesby and additional caretaker.

Zak – Roommate #3. Best friend of Brian and boyfriend of Kayti. Additional caretaker of Sir Reginald von Bartlesby.