DENVER — A car was stolen from a busy west Denver intersection with a dog inside. Now, a local man is desperate to get his furry best friend back.
Myles Richards has spent the last day tirelessly searching for his cherished black lab named Goose.
“She never barks. She’s just a super sweet dog,” Richards said.
The 7-year-old dog is all Richards has left after he lost his wife to cancer.
“I say she’s my four-legged girlfriend,” Richards joked.
Richards stopped by his construction job site at West 18th Avenue and Federal Boulevard on Monday at 2 p.m. to check in on progress. He parked his grey-brown Audi wagon nearby and says he purposely left the car running with the AC on and Goose in the backseat.
Minutes later, both were gone.
“I don’t know if they’ve taken the dog out of the car, or abandoned the car with her in it. That’s my worst fear,” Richards said. “I have the key fob to the car, so when they turn it off they won’t be able to start it again.”
A neighboring business along 18th captured surveillance video. Richards said the couple on the video approached him right before the heist.
“One of them smarted off to me,” he said. “The girl said, ‘Oh, you must be the big kahuna. You have the blueprints and hard hat.'”
Richards says he didn’t think much of it. But he says the video captures his car speeding off. He’s turned the footage over to Denver police.
Volunteers have stepped in to help by sharing an online post and hanging up flyers.
“It’s not even about the car at this point; it’s about saving the life of an animal that has no choice in this crappy situation,” said Sarah Garcia, a volunteer. “And the last thing the owner needs, going through something like this, is to be ridiculed and judged on top of it.”
The Colorado license plate on the stolen Audi is ACQ-M41. Richards is offering a $1,000 reward for the safe return of Goose.
“Do the right thing and give me my dog back,” Richards said.
Goose is not microchipped.
Anyone with information about the auto theft or suspect(s) is encouraged to call Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867. You can also reach Richards at 970-948-8839.