BONITA BEACH, Fla. — “Me and my friends actually stole your dog for some money.” That’s the text Holly Murphy received after losing her dog at a local dog park. The person, who called themselves “John”, was asking for $1,000.
Holly Murphy is vacationing in Southwest Florida. She took her dogs to the Bonita Beach Dog Park Saturday afternoon for a relaxing day. However, it turned into a nightmare when her dog, Kobe, went missing. She thinks he got spooked by thunder and ran away.
“We’re 20 hours from home. We’re here visiting from Kansas City, and so he doesn’t know the area, and just him being lost, especially in a new environment, was really, really emotional,” said Murphy.
Murphy scoured the beach and asked everyone if they’d seen a red Shiba Inu. Johanna Hueber decided to help Murphy after hearing she was from out of town.
“You don’t want to go through that alone, especially if you’re not from here. You have no support network down here,” said Hueber.
Hueber posted pictures of Kobe with Murphy’s phone number on the “Dogs of Bonita Beach” Facebook page.
Within minutes, someone reached out, saying they had the dog, but they wanted money.
Murphy asked the person to send pictures of the dog, but they would not do anything until she paid. That’s when Hueber suggested calling the Lee County Sheriff’s Office.
“I was like, this is not okay, like if they really have your dog and they want money, like no. We’re not paying money. We’re gonna find them,” said Hueber.
LCSO arrived and even flew drones to help find Kobe. Seven long hours later, a couple finally found him in the mangroves.
“It was so awesome, I just kinda like unreal. I didn’t have much to say. I didn’t have much emotion because I was just so— after that many hours of intense anxiety, I was just super relieved,” Murphy said.
NBC2 called the phone number that was texting Murphy, but we received no response.
The Lee County Sheriff’s Office has not said if they’ve made any arrests.
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