NEW DORP BEACH — A tiny Yorkie stolen from outside its Staten Island home has been returned, its owners said.
Rusty, a 2-pound dog that suffers seizures, was brought home by the girlfriend of a Brooklyn man who said he found him in a Brooklyn park, the Staten Island Advance first reported.
"I'm very, very happy that he returned him to me," Angela Pennachio, Rusty's owner, said. "The dog is fine. They took very good care of him."
When Pennachio let Rusty out to relieve himself Friday night, the pooch got out of the family's backyard and wandered to the front of the New Dorp Beach home.
When the family couldn't find him, they checked surveillance camera footage and saw a man stop, look around, pick up the tiny dog and walk away, DNAinfo New York first reported.
According to Pennachio, the girlfriend of Joeffre Ulbade told the family that Ulbade found the pooch in a Bay Ridge park the night he was taken.
Ulbade renamed him Parker, took him to the vet and posted pictures on Facebook of himself with the dog before he saw news reports of it being taken from the home, Pennachio said.
Ulbade could not be reached for comment, but he told the Advance when he found out the dog had been taken, he knew he had to give it back.
"At the end of the day, I know that someone's looking for him and he has a family," he told the paper.
"It's not my duty to keep him as my own — giving him back was the only right thing to do."
Rusty's return made for a happy reunion with Pennachio's 11-year-old daughter Victoria.
"I was completely shocked that he came back so quickly," she said. "I am just really happy that he's home."
