UPDATE: 'I am begging you': Reward for show dogs stolen from In-N-Out up to $30K

UPDATE, 9:30 a.m.

The reward for the stolen show dogs is up to $30,000, their trainer posted today on Facebook.

"If by some crazy chance the men who took the van and dogs you are reading this. PLEASE I am begging you. Go to a safe place unload the dogs and kennels and call in an anonymous tip and location," Tony Carter wrote on Facebook. "Please take the van and all the equipment, but please please I'm begging you don't hurt our dogs!!"

Anyone with information on the dogs or the van they were in is asked to call Redding police at 530-225-4200 or Carter at 206-755-6474.

The van full of the dogs was stolen from the Dana Drive In-N-Out parking lot shortly before 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, officers have said.

It has a Washington plate of BKD2048 and a Seattle Seahawks "12" sticker on the passenger side of the rear window, Carter has said.

Original story:

Redding police are still looking Thursday for a van full of 15 show dogs that was stolen Wednesday afternoon from the parking lot at In-N-Out Burger on Dana Drive.

Police described the vehicle as a 2018 Dodge ProMaster cargo van with Washington license plate of BKD2048. The van also has a Seattle Seahawks sticker with the number "12" on the passenger side of the back window.

Meanwhile, there's now an $8,000 reward for the dogs, their trainer said.

Tony Carter, the owner of the van and a professional dog trainer, said the alleged crime happened so fast, Redding police told him it appears the thieves were lying in wait.

"We ordered at 1:19, the van was gone by 1:23," Carter said. "It was gone. It was literally gone that fast."

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The dog breeds include rat terriers, golden labs and Rottweilers, according to a Redding police Facebook post.

Carter said he left the van running and unlocked with the air conditioning on to keep the dogs cool, and now he realizes that must be what attracted the thieves.

"Stupid me, because, obviously, I thought, 'It's busy, it's the middle of the day,'" Carter said.

The dogs were in kennels inside the van.

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Carter, who's from the Seattle area, said he's been to the restaurant "a hundred times," so he was shocked to suddenly become the victim of a crime there — especially when the restaurant was packed and he parked in the front.

"It was so busy. I mean, it was busy. I parked right in front of the store in the only shade place that they had — right directly in front of the store," he said. "I mean, there was a line out there, there was In-N-Out employees out taking orders."

Carter said he doesn't believe the thieves knew there were dogs inside because they were in the back, which doesn't have windows.

The dogs were being taken to the popular Woofstock Dog Show sponsored by the Contra Costa County Kennel Club and the Yosemite Kennel Club that starts Thursday in Vallejo at the Solano County Fairgrounds.

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"Who would do anything like this — a van full of dogs?" said Davenport, Washington resident Lynda Leffel, who owns a grand champion miniature American shepherd who was taken along with the other valuable canines.

"We're still looking for them — haven't found them yet," Redding police Sgt. Levi Solada said about three hours after the van went missing. "We obviously have investigators working on it and we've notified other agencies in the area and up and down I-5. We'll hopefully get some tips on it."

Contact 530-225-4200 if you have any information regarding the whereabouts of the stolen vehicle and show dogs.

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Leffel was frantic Wednesday afternoon after learning her prized dog was missing.

"I'm devastated. Who on earth would do this," she said. "This is a puppy I raised myself."

She was told the surveillance video shows two men breaking into the van.

Carter said anyone with information can call him at 206-755-6474

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