POOCH-PERFECT ENDING
Dog stolen outside Red Hook Ikea reunited with owner
BY COLIN MIXSON
A woman whose pleas for
help went viral after her pooch
was dognapped outside the Red
Hook Ikea has been reunited
with her beloved hound.
Park Slope resident Wenfei
Tong managed to contact the
woman who walked off with
her furball with the help of dog
lovers across the city, who fi lled
social media with pictures of
her wayward pooch, and the
pair arranged to meet in Prospect
Park on Monday, where
the other woman handed over
the dog happy and healthy.
“It was this amazing explosion
of different people who really
showed a lot of support,”
said Tong. “It practically went
viral.”
Tong, who moved to Brooklyn
three months ago from her
home in Anchorage, Alaska,
had left her shepherd and cattle
dog mix Ana tied up outside the
Beaver Street furniture store
on Feb. 1, only to return a short
time later to discover her dog
was missing — a shocker that
she admits shouldn’t have come
as a big surprise.
“It was naive and stupid, and
I’m kicking myself,” said Tong.
The newly settled Park
Sloper found a security guard
and another Ikea employee,
who explained they were approached
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by a woman and her
family concerned about the unattended
dog. The guard had
tried calling the phone number
found on Ana’s dog tags, but misdialed
it, and when the owner
didn’t answer, the misguided
do-gooder simply walked off
with the friendly pooch.
“I think she basically assumed
that I didn’t deserve my
dog and that she was doing everyone
a favor by taking her,”
Tong said.
The forlorn dog owner fi led
a police report, and then turned
to social media, where she was
met with a fl ood of support
— and condemnation — and
her plight sparked on online debate
even as locals tried to track
down her pooch.
“People were getting into little
arguments with each other
about whether or not I deserved
this,” said Tong. ”Some people
were saying ‘it serves her
right,’ and others were saying
‘don’t say that!’ I’ve also gotten
a ton of criticism and judgement,
which is fi ne.”
It turned out that Tong’s
dognapper shared her information
with another woman at
Ikea before taking the Ana, and
the other lady spotted one of the
online posts advertising the canine’s
disappearance. She soon
contacted Tong, and within
hours the Park Slope resident
found herself reunited with her
beloved pooch, saying there’s
no hard feelings.
“I was being so roasted by
other people on Facebook, but I
understand she was scared too,”
said Tong. “I do think her intentions
were genuinely good.”
Wenfei Tong was reunited with her dog Ana after she was stolen from the
Red Hook Ikea. Photo by Trey Pentecost
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