A woman from Encinitas who claimed that an Amazon delivery driver had stolen her dog from her yard earlier this month has now been reunited with her Golden Retriever.
The reunion as Finn was given back to his owner, Denise Reppenhagen, was captured by NBC 7 outside a Clairemont Petco store.
I don’t know what is beyond happy, but I’m there, she exclaimed.
A viewer reportedly noticed TV coverage of Finn’s dognapping and phoned authorities, claiming to know who the driver was, according to San Diego County Sheriff’s. On October 29, sheriff’s deputies executed a search warrant at a San Diego residence and took 36-year-old Dena Vindiola into custody.
Vindiola acknowledged taking Finn, but the dog wasn’t at her house, according to SDSO. She works for a third-party delivery company that has contracts to deliver packages for Amazon, according to detectives. According to Vindiola, she tried giving the puppy to a friend and then her mother, but neither wanted Finn, so she gave him to an El Centro animal shelter.
Finn was picked up in El Centro on Saturday, according to Trish Forsythe of Labrador Rescuers, a nonprofit organization, after a shelter notified the rescue that Finn would be happier there. After that, Finn was placed with a foster family, who looked after him until he saw Denise again.
“We got notification early this morning that he had a previous owner and that’s what got this ball rolling. We got a voicemail that the owner had gotten an alert from the microchip and that we had her dog, so we made arrangements to meet up,” said Forsythe.
Forsythe said once they receive dogs, they take them to the vet and if they are microchipped, they register that microchip and will get an alert if someone is searching for the dog.
“We’re big advocates in microchipping your dog, but registering your microchip is huge,” Forsythe said.
Reppenhagen was so happy and relieved to be reunited with Finn.
“It’s just been incredible the networking of the community. The army of community that has been searching and working together to find Finn,” she said. “This is my child. My adult children are grownups and they have their own lives. They’re out of the house now. So these are my children now.”
Vindiola was detained by sheriff’s deputies for grand theft and other offenses. She was taken into custody at the Vista Detention Center.
On October 9, Reppenhagen claimed that her daughter had arrived home a little before her, greeted the dogs, and shut the garage door. She was unaware that Finn had been left outside. Reppenagen’s good boy was gone when she arrived home.
“We put up posters. I called all the shelters,” Denise Reppenhagen said.
Two weeks went by without Finn, then Reppenhagen got a tip that suggested she check her neighbor’s security cameras.
“The neighbor witnessed the Amazon driver arriving, delivering the package, and then putting the dog in her car and driving away. So, then I checked my Amazon orders and I indeed had an order,” Reppenhagen said.
Before taking off, the driver seemed to look back toward the property.
“I was in complete disbelief,” Reppenhagen said. “I couldn’t breathe. I literally couldn’t breathe.”
Reppenhagen said she immediately contacted Amazon and filed a report with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. Amazon confirmed the driver was delivering packages for the company at the time.
Source: NBC San Diego
