Two 16-year-old girls were arrested for stealing a beloved pet dachshund named Milkshake in the Bronx, but the dog remains missing, police reported.
The suspects were charged with grand larceny and harassment on Tuesday morning. Despite their apprehension, police are still uncertain about Milkshake’s whereabouts.
“Milkshake has not been returned,” said Luz Monica Montenez, the dog’s distressed owner, in an interview with the Daily News. “I don’t have any updates on her location.”
Montenez recounted that she was in her apartment on May 4 while her children and other neighborhood kids played with the brown-haired dachshund in the hallway. Milkshake, who was given snacks during the play session, disappeared between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.
“It’s a short window and they just happened to take her,” Montenez lamented. She has had Milkshake since the dog was three weeks old.
Following the disappearance, Montenez put up missing posters, which led to harassment from the suspects, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny.
“[The] kids start messing with her, start fooling with her,” Kenny said at a news briefing. “At some point, though, the two perpetrators call her, try a little bit of extortion — we’ll give you your dog back if you give us money.”
After their arrest, the girls, who reside in Montenez’s building, claimed that Milkshake ran away.
“We checked all the shelters,” Kenny stated. “We still have posters up, but Milkshake is nowhere to be found.”
The NYPD had released surveillance footage of the suspects last week, seeking public assistance in identifying and locating them.
Due to their age, the NYPD did not release the names of the suspects following their charges.
Milkshake, who will turn 10 on July 16, has several distinguishing features, including small hard spots on her tail, a broken nail on her rear left paw, and a chipped front tooth. The dog also walks with a slight limp, as noted on a homemade missing poster.
Montenez mentioned that her building frequently has strangers loitering inside, including homeless individuals and teens who skip school and gather near the back staircase.
“We have a lot of reports of packages being stolen,” she said. “But this is an actual dog, a live being [they took]. That’s a little crazy. To me, it was very shocking.”
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