(WHAM13TV) Tessa, a 3-year-old goldendoodle, is back in her owners’ arms – and they could not be happier.
“She is our best friend,” Maureen Turkowski told 13WHAM News when reunited with the family dog.
Tessa went missing from a kennel in Webster on Friday (10/21). Tessa, a golden doodle, disappeared from her suite at TheraVet Acres in Webster. Business Manager Dana Browne said Monday, when staff went to check on the dogs, Tessa’s cage door was open and she was gone. A window was also open, with the screen knocked out, but there was no major damage to the property.
Times news partner 13WHAM News was there Tuesday when Tessa was reunited with her family after her mysterious disappearance.
The owner of TheraVet Acres said it was the best ending anyone could have hoped for.
“She was our responsibility,” Dana Browne told 13WHAM News. “I guess in some sense we let her down. We didn’t have enough security here.”
Browne believes Tessa was targeted in advance, stolen from his kennel and sold on Craigslist for $400.
He said an elderly woman in Canandaigua bought the goldendoodle, but reached out to him after seeing news reports of her disappearance.
“A woman called and said she purchased a goldendoodle late at night Friday (10/21), around 10 p.m.,” Browne continued. “The woman who purchased this dog said the ad went up Wednesday night. Tessa was taken Friday night. That confirms to me that this person saw the dog here and planned the activity.”
“Someone came, snatched her, made the deal immediately after and made it look like she escaped,” Browne said of what he believes happened. “There is no other explanation.”
Her owners, Maureen and Ed Turkowski, said they are overwhelmed by the support they got in bringing home Tessa.
“Thanks Rochester, and Rochester’s connections, because it’s the numbers that win and we get to bring her home,” Maureen said. “Every share, every tip, everything lead to Tessa’s recovery.”
“That’s the darker side of social media,” Turkowski said.
On Tuesday (10/25) Monroe County Sheriff’s Deputy’s continued their investigation that lead to the arrest of one of TheraVet Acres own employees.
Cassandra Blake, age 23, of 15 Rotterdam Road in Sodus was charged with Grand Larceny in the Fourth Degree and Stealing a Companion Animal. She admitted to the theft stating she did it to pay her utility bills. She was arraigned in Webster Court and remanded to jail on $250 cash/$500 bond.
According to Wayne County Probation Office, Blake had been convicted on one count of Grand Larceny back in January 2015 in Genesee County Court. The grand larceny charge was not related to any animal thefts.
Blake was sentenced in April 2015 and transferred the next month. She was placed on probation until 2020. The state of her probation is unknown due to her most recent arrest. She had worked at the facility for six weeks
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