Dognaping or Repossession? Jury Will Have to Decide

It started as a simple business deal, according to a Northridge podiatrist who claims things turned sour a few months later when several people came down with a nasty case of seller’s remorse.

The result is a lawsuit, scheduled to go to trial today in Van Nuys Superior Court. The suit alleges that the sellers realized they had given up a valuable and famous commodity for a paltry $600 and then took it back by force.

The property in question is Shavin-Kingsmere Notty Nada, a champion bull terrier not unlike the party-loving Spuds McKenzie made famous in beer commercials.

Like Spuds, Nada is a well-heeled animal. One expert in the case believes the dog, which at one time was the No. 1 bull terrier in the country, is worth up to $300,000.

At the center of the dispute, according to court documents, is a clandestine raid involving an off-duty Orange County sheriff’s deputy and an Anaheim man, who took the animal from the doctor’s back yard in March, 1990.

No one has seen the dog for nearly four years, and the alleged dognapers will only say that Nada, now 5 1/2 years old, was given to shadowy figures known only as “Helen and Jim,” according to court documents.

The lawsuit, filed by Patricia Walters on April 5, 1990, calls the incident a dognaping, while those who admit taking the dog call it a repossession.

During a trial expected to last five to 10 days, a jury will be asked to decide whether Walters owns the dog, or if Nada is the property of the alleged dognapers.

Walters is asking for the return of Nada as well as unspecified damages for assault and the infliction of emotional distress.

Walters claims in the suit that she was assaulted by William Edwards when he entered her back yard to take Nada. Edwards claims he was rescuing the animal from Walters, who he says intended to put the dog to sleep.

Edwards also claims Walters attacked him with a dog leash when he entered her back yard to get the animal.

Orange County Sheriff’s Sgt. Robert Bollong also is a named in the suit because he allegedly grabbed the animal as William Edwards passed the dog over a wall from Walters’ back yard.