Burglars Abscond With Used Car Lot Guard Dog

When the thieves left the used car lot, they took more than the tools and vacuum cleaner. They also stole Tommy, the guard dog.

Masoud Jame, an employee at Autos Unlimited in Washington, D.C., said when they opened the lot for business May 6, Tommy’s two collars were found on the ground and the doghouse was empty. The German Shepherd mix had lived there for the past 18 months, earning his food by barking at strangers after closing and playing with Jame and others during the day.

“We have break-ins all the time,” Jame said Wednesday. “One other time they took Tommy, but he came back the next day. We thought this time too he’d come back.”

He said their business, and another car dealer next door, are the targets of thieves several times a month. “We take anything of value and put it in our own car trunks,” he said. “At night, we take the telephone and the fax machine out of the office. If we forget and leave something out, it will be gone.”

When they left work May 5, the medium-size, brown dog was on the job, Jame said. He was standing outside his doghouse.

Jame doesn’t know how the thieves got the dog out of the 40-car lot that has a high fence around it. The night Tommy was taken, he had just been moved to the yard after spending the winter months inside the office, Jame said.

“Tommy really wasn’t much of a guard dog, but he was a fun dog to have around,” Jame said. “We all liked to play with him. We’d sure like to have him back.”