Police and frantic dog owners are on the search for a van stolen from outside a motel Tuesday morning in Long Beach.
Kristina Rickard’s white cargo van held four prized show dogs: Two Akitas and two corgis worth an estimated $500,000 combined.
Rickhard said the dogs were in crates inside the vehicle — a male Akita named Trace worth $250,000, another Akita worth $100,000, and two Corgis worth $100,000 each.
$500,000????
Talk about a steaming pile of ... nonsense.
Let's be clear here: these dogs are NOT worth $500,000.
In fact, according to their owners actions, these dogs were not worth the $50 it would have cost to bring them inside the Motel 6 where they were staying.
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10 comments:
Pretty sure your insurance won't cover you if it's your very own actions that lead to the loss of your property. For example, leaving your front door wide open and subsequently getting robbed... is likely going to get your insurance company off the hook.
Leaving $500,000 worth of ANYTHING in a van parked outside a Motel 6 suggests a level of disregard from the get-go, no?
Also, according to Teh Google, there are over 49 hotels in the Long Beach area that are registered on a pet friendly website starting from only $99 a night - a very reasonable price for a hotel, particularly one that welcomes animals (I once had difficulty bringing a ferret IN A CAGE into a Hilton, although it was many years ago). So not only did she have the opportunity to pay the hotel's fee, she also had the opportunity to protest by leaving and simply choosing another of DOZENS of hotels that happily cater to well behaved pets.
The thief should be charged with the theft of the van, along with the theft of whatever fair market value the dogs actually have (likely a few thousand a piece if they were active in the show circuit AND were frequent winners AND had high demand for their offspring - as much as I hate that this raises their value).
It also appears that at least the Akitas belong to her - all the more reason to inflate their price, as their recovery chances are slim (I hope I'm wrong), and any insurance payout would go directly into HER pocket. If in fact she was hired to handle any of the other dogs, I hope a civil suit takes care of the rest, as I'm sure no one who hired her pictured a night sleeping in a van to be a part of the dog's itinerary - particularly after the last show dog vs. van conflict ended the way it did.
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/news/2009-06-24-show-dog-deaths-heat-st-louis_N.htm
While the show dogs were certainly worth something to the owner, it is after all, all about the insurance money.
I cannot conceive of leaving my dogs in the car overnight because:
1. My poundlings are irreplaceble and would never be treated like that.
2. I would not have a crate or a car interior left intact.
I do hope the car thieves leave the dogs at a local shelter and don't hurt them. (That has happened in my home town) But I believe the owner should be fined for inhumane treatment of leaving them there in the first place.
I hope the dogs are found safe. I hope the owner is fined for animal cruelty.
Debi and the pissed off TX JRTs.
FWIW, apparently they did bring three other show dogs in the room with them. Link, via Orange County Register story.
I get nervous when I leave my dog in the truck while I run in a gas station. I've slept in the truck WITH my dog when I couldn't find a dog-friendly place. Ain't no way I'd ever leave a dog in a vehicle overnight, no matter how much it liked the cold.
So the dogs that stayed in the car and are now worth $500,000 are the CHEAP, LOW-COST dogs? Nice!
:)
P
It's odd, Funder - the first comment my husband made when I told him the story is that with the size of the van you could have easily slept on a back seat or pulled the seats out and used a sleeping bag.
There's no way he would have left his mutts in car either. Neither of us will tie them up outside the convenience store while we run in quick, and one of them looks like a rottweiler - and none of them will permit strangers to approach without our presence.
The husband doesn't even like that you can see the dogs through the gate, he wants a solid 6' wooden job so that no one even considers swiping any of them (two of them are merle and as such highly coveted by shoddy breeders).
The only one I feel bad for in this situation is the dogs. Who's to say that they have stable temperaments either, show dogs or not, in a kennel environment many edgy dogs fail the temperament testing. A pound with no scanners, or non-universal scanners, finding one of these dogs all covered in grime and having a little freak out may not even consider them a possible match, particularly if they are dropped far from where they were heisted.
I mean, come on - white cargo van? Why not just say White Minivan? They're just as rare.
Should also be pointed out that by claiming these dogs are worth a cool half million... they've pretty much just guaranteed their out of state transport - unless the entire thing is a set up and the "victim" has the dogs stashed somewhere... why else wouldn't the thief just open the door and let the damn dogs run? What car thief wants a few hundred pounds of hairy passenger just for kicks?
Thanks Patrick for your wise comments here. Just because someone is stupid enough to spend $250,000 "campaigning" a dog doesnt mean the dog is worth that much. As for collecting that kind of money from insurance, well good luck with that--legally proving "special value" for a dog is a very tough prospect. I hope she finds her dogs, but I too would sleep in my van with my hounds before I'd leave them alone all night outside a motel. Thanks also for your efforts on behalf of that starving Jack Russell and for reminding me of the wonderful wit of Mark Twain.
Looks like the Akitas were dropped off at a local shelter and have been recovered. Corgis still missing.
http://www.swrnn.com/southwest-riverside/2010-12-01/news/two-stolen-show-dogs-in-bellflower-found-two-others-still-missing
I think this whole farce is absolutely disgraceful, I feel so sorry for the dogs caught up in this mess.
I would certainly say that each of my Rat Terriers, even my top 10 dog, would be worth probably actually worth about .23/lb.
Their replacement cost is a different story - especially considering food, vet bills, dog show entries, gas, hotels, various membership fees, money paid to hunt private land, etc. that has gone into them. OH and I can't forget the Beast that I bought just to haul their cute butts around in comfort and style.
Their value is absolutely priceless.
I wonder what they based the price on - future value for stud fees or puppies? Money poured into them? Selling price? (HA! on the last one.)
I know of many people who leave their dogs in their crates in their vehicles overnight, and I don't know at all how they sleep. I'd rather have my restless night with 7 dogs piled on top of me in a hotel room than waking up in a sheer panic every 10 minutes wondering if my dogs were okay.
Blaming the owners of the dogs for the van being stolen is a lot like blaming the girl in the short skirt for being raped.
Whoever stole the van is the criminal here! Not the owners of the van.
I'm gonna guess some reporter asked these people an approximate value on the dogs when they were under a lot of stress and that is what they blurted out. Not thinking straight and a poor response to be sure.
And most hotels aren't THAT dog friendly when you are talking about 4-10 large hairy dogs being brought into a room. Heck there isn't room in most hotels rooms for that amount of dogs or crates.
Let's put the blame where it belongs- the criminals whole took what did not belong to them.
Dualgwp
For me the issue is the claimed value of the dogs. Dualgwp has invented a story that they just blurted out the values. A charitable framing, but nonsense. The intent here was to sue the Motel if the dogs did not turn up (hotel chains have pretty deep pockets) and they assigned very specific values to the dogs so it was not a "blurt out". This was not done quickly -- this was done with a hope the dogs might came back, but a scheme if they did not. Insurance fraud after a theft or a natural disaster is as common as rain and turnip tops, and this is how it generally starts. And how it ends, of course, is either a push back from the insurance company or the court, or increased premiums for us all. As a society, if we do not value integrity, then we shall surely be shellacked for all eternity.
P.
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