Two men charged with theft of four Yorkshire terriers

Two men were charged with robbery and grand theft Tuesday for allegedly stealing four Yorkshire terriers at gunpoint in a home invasion robbery last month.

Troy Cabral, 23, and Ryan Jason Betton, 19, surrendered earlier this month after a videotape of the robbery at the Koreatown home aired on TV news and Internet sites. Police recovered the terriers and reunited them with their owners.

Cabral and Betton were each charged with four counts of first-degree residential robbery, four counts of grand theft and one count of first-degree burglary with a person present.

Cabral also was charged with using a handgun during the commission of a crime.

Both men, who are free on $100,000 bail, were scheduled to be arraigned April 4. The district attorney’s office said it was not known whether either man had hired an attorney.

Authorities said the dogs had been advertised for sale in the newspaper and two men, posing as buyers, made an appointment Feb. 23 to see them. When a family member opened the door, one of the men pulled a gun and ordered the family of four to lie on the living room floor.

A home surveillance camera recorded the scene as one man held a gun and the other chased after the dogs with a plastic garbage bag as they scampered around the room and underneath a coffee table.