According to recent crime statistics 5 dogs are stolen every day. An even more shocking statistic is that only 1 of these dogs is likely to be located and returned to their owners. Even a happy ending might take many months or even years to occur.
Reporting the theft to the Police should be the number one priority in these circumstances. However, realistically such cases are considered a lower priority theft of property and unlikely to elicit much of a response.
What can pet owners do themselves in this situation to proactively improve the chances of seeing their much loved family member again?
Here we look at a recent case of dog theft where the owners refused to passively accept their fate. Their quick thinking and prompt action secured the return of their pet within 12 hours, without assistance from the Police and without cost. We share this story in the hope that it might help someone else to do the same, should they be unlucky enough to become victims of this heartless crime.
For those of you who own a pet this may be a familiar fear given the rising trend in pet theft that became common over the Covid-19 lockdown period.
You return home from work, enter your home and immediately realise that your dog is missing. There are signs of a break-in and it doesn’t take long for you to deduce that your loyal family member has been stolen in the burglary.
You reach out to the Police to let them know you have been burgled. Whilst the crime is recorded, they have nobody available who can investigate this for you as quickly as you believe is warranted. You can’t just wait for them to arrive, your beloved pet is missing and you need to take action fast. What do you do? Sadly, this is a real life scenario and currently it is likely not an uncommon one.
There is a lot of talk around the risks that social media can introduce to your life. However, in this recent case the victims went on an “information” offensive; seizing the initiative by harnessing the power of viral social media, family, friends and ultimately the kindness of strangers.
Theft + 1 hour
The victims, understandably very distraught requested immediate support from their neighbours on their street. They asked for urgent assistance in sharing the theft on social media in an attempt to alert the wider community and locate their pet.
As more neighbours found out about the theft, the number of social platforms the theft was on increased. The story was uploaded to several local community groups, some of which have thousands of local followers and strong community engagement – this gave the crime enormous exposure in the local area, and in a very short period of time.
As everyone rallied around to help, sympathetic neighbours started to co-ordinate and organise their efforts. 2 people constantly monitored social media and engaged with posts, questions and reports of possible sightings. This helped to keep engagement high and ensured the group were up to date with up to the minute progress.
Dog owning neighbours who were members of dog groups uploaded images of the dog and posted to these groups, further increasing awareness of the theft. A decision was made to mention that the dog needed urgent medication, the aim being to introduce doubt into the minds of the thieves and to reduce the appeal of ownership and value for any onward sale of the dog.
Theft + 2 hours
Within a matter of hours, the post had been shared far and wide over 4 or 5 sites, each with thousands of followers. The story was seen online in different counties across the north and even further afield, forming a virtual information cordon should the thieves move out of the area. Social media posts were regularly updated with thousands of people becoming genuinely engaged and interested in how the search was going.
Using CCTV images captured from a neighbour’s CCTV cameras, images were also shared of the thieves vehicle. This generated 20 or 30 additional responses from people who believed they knew who the culprits were.
Several of the responses indicated they had seen a vehicle matching the CCTV images driving dangerously in a particular direction. This helped provide a general sense of what areas the dog could possibly be in.
With this new information the targeting of posts shifted from the immediate area where the victims lived and into a different local town. Social media posts were updated accordingly to target the potential area that the dog could be in, with people in this new area now being encouraged to share the posts and join the search. This strategy led to further responses, with a report from an individual describing having seen a dog matching the description with a couple of people entering an apartment.
Theft +6 Hours
Updates continued to stream in and the decision was taken to issue a post stating that searching would now be focused in and around this new area of interest. This action, in conjunction with the identifying photographs and general social media buzz around the crime seems to have then motivated the thieves, or an associate of theirs, to make direct contact with the victims. The dog had now become more of a liability to them than an asset. A meeting was arranged and the stolen dog, was thankfully recovered unharmed.
This story is a clear indicator of the power of harnessing a strong information network, in this instance social media.
Some may point fingers at the Police for not taking action. However the reality is they are not in the position to respond with the speed that this team of neighbours did, dedicate such manpower resources to it or act without the constraints of their dictated working practices.
Key success factors
Time - Action was taken very quickly, good estimates of the event times were established from CCTV
Evidence – Photograph imagery of the dog and of the criminal’s vehicle could be obtained and uploaded.
Relevant Groups – Local groups were used to share the message, these groups are generally highly engaged and spread the message very quickly.
Co-ordination – The group quickly organised themselves to manage the information channels, kept information current, engaged those interested and followed up on key leads.
Targeting – Leads were followed and potential areas were quickly targeted with posting to form an information cordon. This denied the thieves freedom of movement.
Skills – Not everyone is skilled at organization, social media, technology, online marketing and the other aspects that were key to this successful outcome. Particularly at a time of high stress it can be hard to conceive where to begin. The key factor here is to ask for help from anyone you can and allow other people who do have these skills to get involved.
Human empathy – It’s important to remember that most people in our society are law abiding people who wish to help someone who has been a victim of crime. Many people own dogs themselves and can empathise with a crime like this. In this example, the power of social media has simply been used to disseminate information as widely as possible, allowing the human spirit of other people (known and unknown) to do the rest.
A word of caution
While the outcome of this story was the successful recovery of the pet without harm, Police engagement throughout the process should be a consideration in the forefront of your mind. This is especially true when considering a meeting in person with people possibly associated with the criminal fraternity.
Here the outcome was good, that may not always be the case and Police assistance with this final phase could have resulted in greater protection to the individual and the arrest of those behind the crime.
If you would like to speak to one of our experts about concerns or questions you may have on this or any other topic, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us today on 0333 3056615 or complete the form below.
