A Northern California man said Saturday he had to pay a $1,000 ransom for the safe return of his dog, Holly, who was stolen from his parked car Friday night in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District.

Dave Ford told KGO-TV that a day after someone smashed the window of his car and took his 3-year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel a stranger was handing her back to him in a duffel bag in an alley.

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"We turned the corner and he was walking up and he had a bag and he said 'I got her,'" Ford said. “Windows get smashed when computers get left in there, phones get left in there and it sucks but that's kind of how it is in San Francisco now. But, a dog, that's crossing the line."

Ford said he and his girlfriend filed a police report and handed out 1,000 fliers in the area and by Saturday afternoon the stranger called claiming to have kidnapped Holly and demanding the ransom.

"I cried a lot this morning. You know it's like having a kid taken," Ford told KGO.

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It's unclear if any arrests have been made in the case.