Pennsylvania State Police said they charged two women in connection with the theft of five pit bull puppies from a Chanceford Township farm in early October.
Photo: Jessica Hogan holds one of five pit bull puppies stolen from her father's home in Chanceford Township in October.
The break in the case came after a person saw a newspaper article about the theft and reported to police that a nearby family had recently bought a similar dog.
Trooper Doug Miller interviewed the family and tracked down the woman who police allege sold the dog to them. A web of inconsistent stories eventually unraveled and led to the charges against Rachel Marie Lane, 20, of South Duke Street in York, who had allegedly sold the dog, and Andrea Paige Dudash, 20, of Allentown, police said.
But the charges aren't the end of the story.
"None have been recovered," Miller said of the dogs.
Lane and Dudash said four of the dogs were sold to "people on the street," Miller said, and a fifth ran away before police could take it into their custody.
State police said someone sneaked into James Hogan's barn between 8 p.m. Oct. 1 and 6 a.m. Oct. 2 and took the five puppies, owned by Hogan's 23-year-old daughter, Jessie
Hogan, and her boyfriend.
The dogs were about seven weeks old and were barely weaned.
Police said Lane had visited the puppies with an interest to buy them shortly before they disappeared.
The person who owned the pit bull puppy that police suspected was stolen identified Lane as the person who sold him the dog.
Miller interviewed Lane, who said she got the dogs from Dudash, police said. Dudash told Miller over the phone that she bought the dogs through a classified ad in an Allentown-area newspaper, police said.
Miller then requested that troopers at the Bethlehem barracks interview Dudash, and they said they caught her in a lie. Lane then admitted she stole the dogs, police said.
Lane was charged with burglary, criminal trespass, criminal conspiracy, theft, receiving stolen property and unsworn falsification to authorities, state police said. Dudash was charged with hindering apprehension or prosecution.
WHERE ARE THE DOGS?
Two women were charged in connection with the October theft of five pit bull puppies but none of the dogs have been recovered.
Anyone with information about the whereabouts of four all-white pit bulls about 14 weeks old and a black-and-white pit bull about the same age is asked to call Pennsylvania State Police at Loganville at 428-1011.
Leave a comment