Beloved dog stolen from outside Long Island carpet store
LEVITTOWN, Long Island (WABC) -- The owner of a Long Island carpet store is pleading for help after her trained medical service dog Ellie was stolen from outside the business.
It happened Tuesday evening outside Nancy Skolnik's Carpets & Us store in Levittown.
"I'm heartbroken," Skolnik said. "She's with me 24/7, and I'm heartbroken and I just need the help of everybody to bring her back safely."
Surveillance video shows a woman with two children first playing with the 12-year-old Teddy Bear Bichon Shih Tzu mix, and then moments later, she picks up the dog and walks away.
"A witness said, 'That's not your dog. She has a tag and a collar on, please let me give you my phone so that you can notify the owner that there's a lost dog,'" Skolnik said. "And they said leave us alone, we will call."
But they never did.
"I am afraid to close my eyes," Skolnik said. "I slept here last night, hoping that somebody would just bring her to the door and return her to me."
Skolnick says her dog, which also requires medication, is always at the store and was outside when they received a Fed Ex order.
"Ellie comes in here every day," Skolnik said. "I know that she's out there someplace. I just need to get her back."
She said she later found the dog had been taken.
"Anybody that knows me knows my dog," she said. "She alerts me for my medical condition, and I need her back."
Nassau County police say this is considered a grand larceny case because Ellie is a service dog.
Anyone with information is urged to contact police.
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