A beloved Cocker Spaniel was apparently dog-napped on Tuesday night as he waited for his master outside a Boerum Hill deli.
Jon Crawford-Phillips — who is now offering $1,000 for his dog’s safe return — said he last saw little Thompy as he tied his best friend’s leash to a hook outside the State Street Gourmet Deli on Third Avenue at 8:30 pm.
“I went in for about 30 seconds. When I came out he was gone,” he said. “I think he was taken. This whole ordeal has been quite traumatic.”
Thompy — short for Thompson — couldn’t have freed himself and run off, Crawford-Phillips said. Someone must have untied the leash.
The dog owner said that his 4-year-old pup’s greatest personality trait might have been his undoing; Thompy is always eager to make a new friend — a possible explanation for why no one heard any growling, yelping or whimpering before the dog vanished.
Joyce Virani, a neighbor who is one of Thompy’s many fans, could see how the 22-pound dog would have walked off with a stranger.
“He’s just about the biggest lover you ever met,” she said.
The distraught dog owner and two cops toured the neighborhood together minutes after the pup disappeared, but they couldn’t pick up the brown-and-tan cocker’s trail.
There was also an Internet blast about Thompy’s disappearance, but no one has come forward, bolstering Crawford-Phillips’s belief that someone stole the dog.
If you have any news about Thompy, please contact Crawford-Phillips at (646) 286-0808.
