A Marine corps veteran was reunited with her service dog on Wednesday after thieves stole her SUV at a southwest Indianapolis truck stop Tuesday afternoon.
A video from the Indianapolis Metro Police Department shows the pup, a two-year-old named Wrigley, running into his owner’s arms after police officers reunited the dog with his family.
Indianapolis police asked the community for help finding Wrigley Tuesday after thieves stole Lana and Tim Whitner’s Toyota 4Runner, with their dog inside, from the Flying J Truck Stop on Indianapolis’s south side:
The family had been traveling to Florida from Illinois and stopped to get gas and use the restroom at the truck stop. When the couple left their SUV unattended, a man carjacked the vehicle with the dog inside and sped off, WTHR reported.
Lana Whitner said Tuesday she felt lost without her canine companion of two years, which also acts as a service dog to detect seizures or migraines.
“He’s trained to sense oncoming seizures and migraine headaches,” Lana Whitner told WXIN. “He’s my lifeline right now.”
Police were able to recover the stolen vehicle on the city’s east side but did not find Wrigley, a Rhodesian ridgeback mix, inside the SUV.
On Wednesday, an eagle-eyed resident spotted a pup matching Wrigley’s description and called the police. Officials said they spotted Wrigley on the southeast side of the city and quickly reunited him with his family.
The Indianapolis police released a statement on Wednesday thanking the community for working to find the dog and reuniting him with his owners.
“This happy ending is brought to you by the community working together,” the Indianapolis Metro Police said in a statement. “Thank you to all that helped.”