'He's family:' Riverwest woman claims to be victim of dog theft not once, but twice in alarming trend

 

UPDATE: Macho has been found! Leach said that the coverage our team did helped bring Macho back to her. 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Around two million dogs are stolen each year in the United States, and Milwaukee is no stranger to that startling statistic.

Now, one Riverwest woman believes she's one of the latest in the area to fall victim.

"I didn't know what to do," Shaniece Leach told CBS 58's Ellie Nakamoto-White. 

She had taken her 3-year-old French bulldog, Macho, out for a morning bathroom break on Thursday, Nov. 30, and had gone back inside briefly to get changed for work.

When she went back out to her yard minutes later, she said Macho was nowhere to be found, and the heavy chain his collar had been clipped to was lying on the ground.

"He was gone," Leach said.

In his place was a pile of dry dog food Leach hadn't seen before.

The range of the Ring camera on her door nearby was also just out of reach of the corner Macho had sat in.

"I believe he was lured to this area and unhooked," Leach said.

And this isn't even the first heartbreak that she's had this year.

Her other dog, a 10-year-old poodle mix named Trevor, also disappeared while outside in April.

“I was calling his name and he wasn’t coming, so I’m just like, uh...okay. I drove around a little bit, nowhere to be found," Leach said. "I never saw him again after that."

Trevor is microchipped, but Macho is not.

Leach said she's filed several reports, posted on social media groups, informed local dog rescue groups like MADACC and Billy's Posse, and has hung up flyers around her neighborhood.

Now, she's just hoping for good news.

"They are my kids. This is equivalent to my kid being kidnapped," Leach said. "[They're] not for anyone else but me."