Bad People: Blind Man in Chicago Had His 14-Year Old Service Dog 'Bam Bam' Stolen Out of His Yard, Thankfully 'Bam Bam' Has Been Returned
Full Tweet: A stolen service and support dog has been safely reunited with his blind human after more than two months.
Bam Bam, a 14-year-old dachshund, was taken from Angel Santiago's Chicago yard the night of June 5. Santiago had let Bam Bam out to potty when he heard two men enter his yard through the gate. He tried to stop them and was able to grab one of the suspects, but they got away with his beloved companion.
Bam Bam's human never gave up searching for him, walking seven miles a day and posting flyers that captured the city's attention. "Let your eyes be mine and look out for Bam Bam for me please," Santiago pleaded on the news.
Last night, an unidentified man and woman dropped Bam Bam off at Chicago's 16th Police District station, and microchip data linked him back to Santiago, who was able to pick him up at 9:30pm.
The police investigation into Bam Bam's theft is ongoing, but for now Santiago is thrilled to have him home. “The entire city has been searching for this dog,” said John Garrido, a former police officer who runs a rescue foundation and was helping facilitate Bam Bam's return. “He is safe and sound. … I am told it was a happy reunion.” 14/10 welcome home Bam Bam
You're being a bit stingy with your ratings there, @dog_rates. I can't imagine giving Bam Bam, the stolen 14-year old service dachshund, a score any lower than 20/10 after all he went through. After reading this story, I feel compelled to amend my "Worst People In The World" power rankings.
1. Pedophiles
2. People Who Steal a Blind Man's 14-Year Old Service Dachshund
3. Rapists
4. Whoever Runs The @NFL_DovKleiman Twitter Account
5. Murderers
I'm the world's biggest sucker when it comes to dog stories. If I were to fully indulge myself, I could write 3 blogs a day about the best dogs I saw on TikTok that morning. If I'm not careful, I could go down a really scary path in that regard. But if I find a decent newsworthy-ish story about a dog... a story that I think people will agree with me on, I'm gonna take my opportunity.
Plus it's always nice to let a little hate out. I see a lot of things that I hate on a daily basis. But you can't just let yourself openly hate everything. For example, there was a pitcher at the Little League World Series the other day who really grinded my gears. Not pitching wise. I didn't like his personality. But I can't outwardly hate on a 12-year old kid. So I was forced to bottle it up, push it deep down inside of me, and save it for something that I was allowed to put hate towards publicly.
Thankfully, god gifted me this story about some dognappers. What type of soulless P.O.S. steals a dog? Let alone the 14-year old service dog of a dying blind man. Just watch this video from back when Angel Santiago first had his dog stolen...
Bam Bam's bark began to fade away... the poor blind man walked 7 MILES every day as he handed out "have you seen my dog" fliers.. All the while, he was feeling his body begin to fade away... And all he got in return were FAKE TIPS AND SCAM CALLS?! That's just about the most heartbreaking news clip I've watched in my 33 years of life.
Horrible people. The worst our universe has to offer. Life in prison. Death penalty by being thrown into pit of angry Pit Bulls as people place bets on how long it takes them to eat your face. Ok maybe I can't say "I want them to die". Maybe just a 100-year sentence to a humane society where you're forced to pick up dog shit but can only use your mouth.
The people calling in with fake tips and scams are almost worst than the dognappers themselves. There's a whole industry's worth of people out there who stalk social media for "lost pet" posts, and extort the owners for money. It happened to a friend of mine whose cat escaped. She got a text from someone who claimed to have her cat. She was so relieved. So relieved that she called my wife crying. But after a handful of texts with the person who claimed to have found her cat, the whole thing turned into a hostage situation. The person was asking for hundreds of dollars to return her cat. They took some sort of angle like, "I'm so sorry, my sick mom is in the hospital. I can't afford to not capitalize off this opportunity. So just send me money and I'll bring your cat."
My friend isn't a complete idiot, so at that point, she knew it was bullshit. But I bet a lot of people don't. People will do anything to get their pet back. Especially when they're panicked and not thinking clearly. Anybody who's preying off that desperation... it's the dog pit for you.
My guess is the people who stole Bam Bam sold the dog for little bit of money. But thanks to Angel's incredible dedication, blindly walking 7 miles per day handing out lost dog fliers, the people who purchased Bam Bam eventually realized that they had bought a stolen dog. So in order to not get caught up in anything, they did the easiest thing and anonymously dropped Bam Bam off at the police station.
Either that, or the assholes who stole Bam Bam realized there was no money in a 14-year old dog, and decided to get out while they still could. Regardless, get on the case investigators. Somebody catch these people, and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. Which I suppose doesn't meant the death penalty. But maybe it should be considered.
