Two 16-year-old girls were arrested for stealing a dachshund named Milkshake from a Bronx apartment last month, but the beloved emotional support dog remains missing, authorities said Tuesday.
The teens, whose names are not being released because they are minors, were arrested Monday and charged with third-degree felony theft and second-degree harassment in the daring May 4 dog kidnapping, police said.
Her owner, Luz Montanez, 34, previously told The Washington Post that her 10-year-old female dachshund, named Milkshake, was snatched by ruthless thieves while she was distracted at her young son’s birthday party.
Video released by the NYPD last week shows the diminutive dog chasing two dog thieves down a hallway, up and down a small staircase and to the door of a building on Tiffany Street near Westchester Avenue in Longwood.
Milkshake had not been returned by Tuesday and his whereabouts are unknown, police said.
Montanez, who could not immediately be reached Tuesday, said the suspects “look familiar” from surveillance camera footage but did not know them personally.
Montanez said she hosted a Bluey-themed birthday party for her kindergarten-aged son in their apartment and let the children play in the hallway, where they were later joined by milkshakes.
But around 7:50 p.m., when Montanez served the cake to guests, she noticed the brown dog was missing.
Milkshake was just three weeks old when Montanez received him as a birthday gift from his father, who fed him from a bottle and kept his teeth in a jar.
“Milkshake is definitely my first-born. I call her my favorite,” the distraught owner said. “Both my kids love her… I tell her, ‘You’re my favorite dog,’ and I [son]”You are my favorite person.” These two are my children!
“She’s my baby. She’s my soulmate,” Montanez added of her beloved pet. “She’s my heart, my heartbeat. She’s been through everything with me.”
Montanez said last week that she hopes someone well-meaning will return her dog.
“No dog lover would do what the perpetrator did,” she said of the attacker. “It’s mean, and no one would do that. I know your intentions towards the dog are not pure.”
“I just want someone to listen to me because she needs to go home,” Montanez said. “She needs to go home now.”
