Mysterious thieves stole a Las Vegas nonprofit’s 10-foot tall, 700-pound dog mascot — then left it in front of an AutoZone across town when they got found out.
The massive, fluffy stuffed pup called “Mr. Deeds,” serves as the symbol of The Good Deed Project, a Nevada charity that helps those in need, according to The Independent.
It was strapped and bolted down in front of the organization’s Vegas headquarters — until a shadowy group of burglars pulled up in a black SUV at about 4 a.m. on Nov. 5, pushed Mr. Deeds onto a trailer, cloaked him in a tarp and took off.
“I was in disbelief,” Mandy Telleria, the group’s executive director, told Fox 5 Vegas. “How are you going to steal a 700-pound, 10-foot-tall dog?”
But the mammoth canine couldn’t stay hidden for long.
Just four days later, a tipster called the charity and told them Mr. Deeds had been spotted at an AutoZone on the other side of the city — along with the trailer-toting Lincoln Navigator from the night of the theft.
Someone was sleeping in the driver’s seat, according to Javier Montano, the store’s sales manager.
“There was somebody asleep in the front,” Montano said, according to 8 News Now. “The hood was open. It had a battery charger like he was trying to charge the batteries, so I didn’t think anything of it.”
And just as a news crew pulled up — the tipster had called them, too — the driver scrambled to unhook the trailer and make a getaway.
But a Good Samaritan blocked the SUV in, so the driver ran away, jumped a fence and disappeared just as the cops pulled up.
Authorities impounded the abandoned trailer, and police have identified one suspect for whom they’re searching, the outlet said.
“I’m still in shock,” Telleria told the station. “I was hoping we’d find the dog, but I honestly didn’t think we were going to.”
Cops described the man as a 6-foot-tall, in his late 40s with gray hair and a gray beard.
He was last seen wearing a black leather jacket, black track pants and black sneakers.
Telleria just want to know who jacked the pooch and why — charity workers and volunteers look at the stuffed dog as an important part of their organization, she said.
“When people come here for service days, the first thing they want to do is go pet the dog and take pictures with the dog,” she said.
“It helps us bring awareness to the community, and it’s a bright light in what we do, cause it can be very stressful and hard to deal with because we see a lot of people dealing with challenges.
“It puts a smile on everybody’s face, just instantly.”
Mr. Deeds hasn’t been returned to his old stomping grounds yet — he’s considered evidence at the moment, and will have to be repaired after he was damaged during the heist, the Independent said.
Still, Telleria wants to have the towering figure back in the game before the holidays — and said she’d love to have some donors help out with costs.
She also had sharp works for pranksters who might be thinking about emulating the rip-off gone wrong: “Think twice, because you don’t really know how much it could affect somebody.”