Dog Home Safe Again After ‘Joy Ride’ With Car Thieves

Trooper, the 11-year-old miniature dachshund that was abducted when someone stole his owner’s car, is home safe.

Scarcely 28 hours after dog and car vanished, a passer-by spotted the car parked on Sepulveda Boulevard with a thirsty and apparently frightened Trooper inside. The passer-by read the telephone number on Trooper’s red studded collar and contacted owners Bob and Nancy Palmer.

The Palmers rushed to Trooper’s rescue, and he was soon back at his Pacific Palisades home. He was not injured.

Trooper had been sitting inside the Palmers’ parked 1984 Subaru on Tuesday while Nancy Palmer dashed into a store on Santa Monica Boulevard near Bundy Avenue to do some last-minute shopping for her daughter’s wedding. In the rush she left the keys in the car, and when she emerged from the store, car and dog were gone.

The car was recovered a short distance from where it had been stolen, but with a couple hundred more miles on the odometer.

The thieves “just let him go along on their joy ride,” Bob Palmer said. “He came home and went right to bed.”