A STUNNED Dublin man has spoken of how he caught a would-be dog-thief in the act as he chatted to another dog-walker.
Robert Keeley was out for a walk with his two dogs when he decided to fill up a water bowl in St Anne's Park in Raheny.
He got chatting to a fellow pet-owner for a brief moment before retuning to his dogs, who were tied to a railing just yards away from where he was filling up the water from, only to find a mean trying to remove the collars from his beloved pooches.
Robert explained the story to Dublin Live.
"I said I would rinse it out first and fill it up because two weeks ago somebody planted snail killer pellets in the dog park in sausages and a dog got really sick. I just put my two leads hanging over the railings while I went to get water from the tap."
On his way back he got caught up talking to a fellow pet owner who had been calling for his Collie puppy.
"He couldn't see her but I saw her outside of the park looking in at my two dogs. So I called him over and said, 'here she is'. We got talking.
"He asked about my dogs because he had never seen them before. I told him they were Northern Inuits and we chatted for a bit about them and football.
"The man I was talking to then left, but at same time I heard the small dog park gate open where my dogs were on the other side of the railings.
"So when you come into the dog park on the right hand side there are trees in the large dog section.
"Another man came in. I don't think he knew I was in there, but I could see him. He was 40 to 50-years-old, bald, wearing a navy top and on his own.
"I called my dogs but they never came so I walked over, and called again and whistled.
"The guy saw me and turned and left. My dogs came but one of their collars was opened and was left hanging from the Halti.
"The collar is done like a belt so no way the dog can open it, so the man must have tried to take it off over the railings and my dog was too big to pick up.
"Luckily my dogs are big and he wouldn't have gotten far, and he left the minute he realised I was there.
"I then went to the railings to get the leads but only one was there."
"I couldn't believe [how brazen he was] because there was no entrance there. I would have caught him especially with a big dog. Northern Inuits are a big breed. She is about 40kg.
"And the Northern Inuit breed were used as the wolves in Game of Thrones so maybe he saw dollar signs."
See More: Dog Theft, Dogs, Dublin, St Annes Park
