You'll get Molly if we get the cash

"I need to buy a car, my brother's got attached to the dog and I really want this money to buy a car," stated the voice on the other end of the phone.

Molly the Boston Terrier is back home today after being snatched from outside of a Brooklyn NY laundry. It was hardly a surprise that she surfaced just after the Daily News ran a story highlighting her and how scammers were snatching dogs and returning them for cash.

Stacey Grant and her boyfriend Nick Hallam received a phonecall from a man who claimed to have found Molly walking on the BQE, just yards from the spot where she vanished in Williamsburg Friday October 26 2007. The caller claimed that they had almost run her over but saved her and had taken her to his father's house on Long Island.

The couple became suspicious when the man kept making basic mistakes in describing Molly. He kept refering her as "he" and stated that she was found dragging a black lead when Molly's was burgendy in color. To top things off, he gave the couple a wrong number to contact him with, a number they said was for the museum of New York.

They contacted the police who warned them that it could be a scam and there would be no dog there and even though the man was presistant about making the swap near his Harlem home, they agreed on a neutral location. They got in a cab and drove by, spotting a man holding what looked like Molly.

It was Molly and both Grant and the dog were reunited. That came at a price though, the couple handed over an envelope with $2,500 in return for her, even though one of the men fit the description a witness gave who saw Molly get snatched. Grant and Hallam are glad to have their dog home again and credit the newspaper story for her return. Molly is said to be subdued, spooked, has some blisters on her feet and a faint odor of marijuana but is ok overall.

Grant asked who would take a dog and hold it for ransom........ evidently, there are quite a few who will still attempt this scam. They need the money for whatever excuse and they know petowners love their pet enough to go to great lengths to have them returned. I am glad Molly is home and I hope they manage to find those who profited from her "disappearance."