Behind the Badge
Baily and Sky, a pair of Siberian Husky sisters, went on quite a journey after going missing from their owner’s Fullerton apartment.
Thanks to the efforts of the Fullerton Police Department’s Directed Enforcement Team, the dogs wound up back home, and none the worse for wear.
The saga began on Dec. 17, when Jordan Gregory, 22, returned home to discover his cherished pets were missing.
It’s not clear whether they were taken or escaped through a door that may have been inadvertently left open, Gregory said.
Either way, they were gone.
“I did a good three-mile sprint around the apartment complex when I found out,” said Gregory, a former college soccer player. “They mean everything to me.”
Gregory got the dogs when they were puppies from a Husky farm in New Mexico run by a military veteran.
Baily, right, and her younger sister, Sky, went missing from Jordan Gregory’s residence in Fullerton. An investigation by the FPD Directed Enforcement Team led to the dogs’ return. Photo courtesy of Jordan Gregory
Baily is almost 4 years old and Sky is 3.
He filed a report with the Fullerton PD, papered the neighborhood with flyers, questioned neighbors and posted information on dog recovery websites lostmydoggie.com and doggyfinder.com.
“For about four days, I didn’t sleep,” Gregory said. “I just talked to people and handed out flyers.”
A break came when Gregory received an alert that one of his dogs, Baily, was listed as being for sale for $500 on Craigslist by a seller in Bellflower.
“He called me and said he was ‘100 percent sure it was my dog,’” said Cpl. Mike Greene of FPD’s Directed Enforcement Team.
Posing as a prospective buyer, Greene contacted the seller and set up a meeting to see the dog at 1:30 p.m. Dec. 30 in Long Beach.
Prior to the meeting, Greene and his partner, Cpl. Emmanuel Pulido, conducted surveillance at the seller’s residence, where they watched him place the dog in his vehicle.
The investigators followed the seller to Long Beach and then pulled him over.
The dog for sale was indeed Bailey, who was then promptly returned to Gregory. (Gregory was out of the country, so Bailey was given over to his friend).
The seller told investigators he purchased the dog for $100 on Dec. 21 from someone in Brea.
Investigators paid a visit to the Brea seller and learned of a location in Anaheim where the dogs were last seen together.
So the investigators responded to the Anaheim address, where they found Sky, who was also returned to Gregory.
The Anaheim resident said she got the dogs from her friend, who found them roaming loose in Placentia.
“They were very, very helpful, especially Cpl. Greene,” Gregory said of Fullerton PD. “I’m very grateful to Cpl. Greene.”
Currently, no arrests have been made in connection to the case, but the investigation is ongoing, Greene said.
“We were all very happy for him to get his dogs back,” Greene said. “He was pretty elated.”
