METHUEN, Mass. — The captor of an English bulldog turned the canine over to police early Wednesday, ending a lightning-quick search that lasted only about seven hours but rocked animal lovers at Nevins Farm shelter.

The 1-year-old bulldog, Isabelle, was dog-napped from the shelter about 5 p.m. Tuesday and tracked to Haverhill shortly afterward.

Police said William Brown, 44, of 8 Play Camp Road in Salem, N.H., admitted to taking Isabelle from a pen at the Broadway farm. He stashed the 40-pound dog at his girlfriend’s apartment in Haverhill, police said.

Brown said he took the dog because he thought it would be euthanized, said police Detective John Cushing Jr. Nevins Farm, a Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals facility, does not kill its animals.

“We’re so thankful that the dog is back and is healthy,” said Mike Keiley, a Nevins Farm manager. “We were just sick to our stomachs, why someone would steal a dog from the shelter?”

Police credit Pam Nixon, a Nevins Farm staffer, with providing the big break in the case.

She was working in a chicken coop when she spotted a man loading a brown dog into his car. He looked suspicious so Nixon wrote down the license plate number.

She called it “intuition.”

“It was an incredibly smart, heads-up move on her part,” Keiley said.

Later Tuesday, staffer Kevin Richards did a cell check and noticed Isabelle was missing from her pen and was not in the “adoption room,” a common area where families can walk around freely looking at dogs. Police were called, and officers dusted for fingerprints.

Richards later spoke to Nixon about the missing dog, and she immediately realized she knew she had a license plate number that could lead to the whereabouts of the dog.

Cushing and Officer James Moore tracked the license plate to a Salem, N.H., address. They interviewed Brown and he immediately admitted to the crime, they said.

“He was very forthcoming,” Moore said.

Police arranged for Brown to retrieve the dog from the Haverhill apartment and take it to the Methuen Police Department.

An English bulldog puppy can sell for between $1,000 and $2,000 at pet stores, Keiley said. The shelter is in the process of placing Isabelle with a family for about $225.

Brown was not arrested. He will be summonsed to court and charged with larceny, police said.

“In our minds, we want to make a strong statement that if someone wants to steal an animal from a shelter, they will be punished,” Keiley said.

Police were determining Wednesday whether to charge Brown with larceny over $250, a felony with a maximum jail sentence of five years in state prison. Larceny under $250 is a misdemeanor.



Jason Tait writes for The Eagle-Tribune in North Andover, Mass.