Las Vegas couple reunited with 12-year-old Yorkie after alleged dognapping

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – A Las Vegas couple has reunited with their 12-year-old Yorkie, Ricky, after he was allegedly dognapped outside their home on Aug. 22. According to owners Natasha Veiga and Scott Reynolds, Ricky was taken on Aug. 22, just before 8:30 p.m. Veiga said she went to dump mop water in their front yard and closed the gate behind her. But the gate did not close all the way. Ricky can be seen on video stepping outside, but was trained not to go into the street. The couple's surveillance video captured a woman with long reddish-pink hair getting out of her car, calling Ricky over, and taking him away. Veiga and Reynolds said they reported it to the Metro Police but were told they would have to wait until a detective was assigned to them. That's when they came across a social media post of somebody accusing a woman of stealing their dogs. 'There was a Facebook post that somebody accused this woman with red hair, red long hair, just like the girl in the video, accusing them of stealing her dog,' Veiga said. They connected with the Facebook user who claimed the woman was a mutual friend who they allowed to dogsit for them. NewsNation affiliate KLAS is not identifying the woman because she has not been charged with a crime. The Facebook user said they were shocked by the alleged dognapping and planned to press charges, while also giving information to Veiga and Reynolds about the woman. Friends and family of the couple, also desperate to find Ricky, began researching the suspected dognapper and her social media. 'They figured out where we think the address is, where the person lives, and previous addresses, as well as some other stuff she was doing online, selling Facebook. We had people staking out all three addresses. We had a couple people pretend to buy stuff from her on Facebook. And I think the circle was closing in on her,' Reynolds said. Veiga and Reynolds said the woman canceled 2 planned meet-ups to buy items off of her. They said the goal was to get a better look at the woman and ask if she had their yorkie, Ricky. 'Maybe not the smartest thing to do, but we wanted to get our dog back, because we figured Ricky would bark for sure, and or maybe run towards the door. If he was not caged up or something,' Reynolds said. 'And the other piece is if we could get eyes on the woman and see that that's you, we recognize you, then we know where to bring the police.' Reynolds and Veiga said the woman had a black sedan parked in her driveway, similar to the one caught on their home surveillance video. They also claim a white car drove off from the home, which, they believe, they later encountered when they finally retrieved Ricky. 'When she canceled the appointments for the Facebook Marketplace stuff, we had cars everywhere and a white car was seen leaving her house by one of our family members,' Veiga said. 'And so when we got the call, they told us to meet us at the Walgreens, which is like right down the street. We went to the Walgreens and there was a white car that was beat up.' Upon meeting at the Walgreens, Reynolds and Veiga encountered two men and a woman, who they said was not the pink-haired woman in the video. They said Ricky was in the car with them, and the woman was happy to hand Ricky over to Natasha. But they claim the other two men were money-focused. 'She got the dog into Natasha's arms and she seemed genuinely happy. The other two gentlemen getting out of the car, one specifically, was super money focused. And he said, 'What about the reward?'' Reynolds said. 'And I said, 'You can have whatever's in my wallet,' which is a hundred bucks. And he goes, 'No, man, give me some more.'' Reynolds and Veiga said the man asked for a $4,000 reward, which confused Veiga and Reynolds because they never mentioned that number to anyone when searching for Ricky. 'We're kind of just like, just kind of like, 'You're crazy, buddy,' And we just kind of moved away from them and started walking off,' Reynolds said. Veiga and Reynolds said they confirmed the Yorkie was Ricky because he had a characteristic skin tag between his eyes. 'I said, 'Bring him here. Let me see the skin tag,'' Veiga said. 'She knows her dog. She's had the dog for 12 years,' Reynolds said. Veiga and Reynolds said after finally retrieving their dog, they plan to hand over the information they collected on the suspected dognapper to Metro Police. KLAS reached out to Metro Police twice regarding this case and will update the story when a response is given. Reynolds and Veiga hope someone takes action against the woman they claim is going around and taking people's dogs. 'She seems very connected in that world and we have forwarded that information to the police and hopefully they you know can go down the road and see how they can go prosecute this because this is not okay,' Reynolds said. 'If you're making a living off of stealing people's dogs or holding them ransom or trying to benefit from somebody's pain, you should definitely face what's coming to you.' 'We don't have badges; we were clearly able to find a serious pattern related to this woman and dog-napping. Hopefully, between our report and the other person's report, they go after this person,' Veiga said.