JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Jacksonville couple is asking for the public’s help finding a puppy and a bearded dragon stolen from their pet store Saturday.
Stephen Brezil and his girlfriend, Jessica Monteagudo, own Xtreme Exotics at 11672 Phillips Highway. Brezil said a group of four people, two men and two women, came into the store Saturday afternoon.
One of the men picked up a 9-week-old blue merle Australian shepherd puppy and walked around the store with it before handing it to one of the women, who left, Brezil said. Surveillance footage also shows the man taking a bearded dragon out of its enclosure, and it hasn’t been seen since.
The group drove off in a white Ford Ranger with temporary California paper tags, Brezil said.
“We have two animals suffering,” Brezil told HomeFetch. “I hate that.”
The puppy is too young to have had her full round of shots, Brezil said, leaving her vulnerable to illness.
Hours later, Morgan Howard, who works at Xtreme Exotics Wildlife Foundation, a zoo owned by Brezil in Jacksonville, was in the parking lot of Boba Tea House at 7458 U.S. 1 in St. Augustine when the group pulled up and asked her where to find a Petco or PetSmart.
When she asked what animal they had, one of the women pulled out the puppy, Howard said.
“She pulls out the puppy and, like, pure fear runs through my body,” Howard said. “I’m like, ‘Oh my God, that’s the dog.'”
Howard asked whether she could take photos and videos of the puppy, and one of the men, who called himself “Tony,” agreed. Howard then sent the video to Brezil and Monteagudo, who confirmed it was their puppy.
Monteagudo said she also went looking for the puppy herself.
“I was driving around all the St. Augustine area,” Monteagudo said. “I went to every Pet Supermarket, every Petco, I drove around town.”
Brendan Davelaar, who owns Boba Tea House, said a man and woman came in Saturday evening asking the shop to remake a food and drink order. The pair had never been customers, he said, and the items they described are not on the menu.
“My wife and I kind of looked at each other and we were like, ‘I think this lady’s full of crap,'” Davelaar said.
Davelaar’s wife pulled Howard aside, told her something was off about the woman and asked her to stay while they called police, Howard said.
Meanwhile, Davelaar’s two young children went outside to play with the puppy, and the man offered to sell it to the family for $4,500, them $4,000, he said.
Employees from the AT&T store next door also came outside to see the puppy, and “Tony” offered it to them for $4,000, then $3,500, employees said.
“They see [the dog] as merchandise, but at the end of the day, it’s a living animal,” Monteagudo said. “If you have to steal a puppy, you don’t have the means to take care of a puppy.”
St. Johns County sheriff’s deputies responded around 6:30 p.m. to a report of customers not paying for food and drinks, but the group had already left, Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Taylor Levesque said. Once there, deputies learned the group was possibly connected to the puppy theft. Deputies have not made contact with the suspects, she said.
Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Christian Hancock said the agency, which is handling the case, is investigating it as grand theft, a felony in Florida, and that property reported stolen in one jurisdiction can be collected by another agency after a verification process.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office at 904-630-0500 and reference case number 26-575410.
