Puppy snatcher: ‘But he likes me’

One small white puppy at a Newport Beach pet store went for more than a routine walk around the block Tuesday night.

The four-month-old poodle and schnauzer mix, called a schnoodle, got a real change of scenery when it was stolen from Russo’s pet store in Fashion Island by a man who ran away with the dog. The puppy was returned safely after a pet store employee and a bystander chased the man and got the dog back.

The puppy was not harmed and is doing fine, said Dion Brown, a Russo’s store manager.

“She just got out for a little air,” Brown said.

The dog, for sale for $499, was swiped out of an open top container in the back of the pet store Tuesday night. Pet store employees called police at 7:20 p.m. and told them a man had taken off and was being chased by an employee, police said.

The employee followed the thief into the Macy’s parking lot, where an unidentified bystander pulled his car up next to the fleeing suspect and ordered the man to give back the dog, police said.

“But he [the puppy] likes me. Can I have him?” the man said to the pet store employee, according to Newport Beach Police Sgt. Bill Hartford.

He then handed over the dog and took off running again.

A Newport Beach police officer took the man believed to be the thief into custody at Avocado Avenue and San Joaquin Hills Road, Hartford said. Michael Richard Ham, 22, of Monrovia, was arrested on suspicion of stealing an animal. He was being held on $20,000 bail, Hartford said.

In her 12 years working at Russo’s, Brown said there have been several pets stolen, but it’s not an everyday event.

“You would think that they’d have more class,” Brown said.

The pet store allows people to hold the dogs outside the pens and even take them for walks, Dion said. To take a puppy for a walk around the mall, the prospective buyer must be an adult and must leave a driver’s license, Dion said.

The puppies are locked inside their cages, but the pet shop does place several dogs and other animals in cages with an open top, such as the one where the schnoodle was when it was taken.

Schnoodles are becoming an increasingly popular breed, Dion said.

“They’re really good dogs,” Brown said, of mixed breeds like schnoodles.

Back in her cage Wednesday, the puppy ? who hasn’t been named yet ? seemed unfazed by the ordeal. She was only too happy to be picked up and cuddled by prospective new parents.

Now that the puppy’s famous, maybe more people will be interested in taking her home ? after paying, Brown said.dpt.22-schnoodle-CPhotoInfo1U1S7M7320060622j1874vncMARK DUSTIN / DAILY PILOT(LA)Kevin Lam, an employee at Russo’s pet store, holds the store’s stolen, then-returned schnoodle puppy, which was not harmed.