Harris County officials have charged three individuals with felony theft following a calculated and disconcerting heist that involved stealing puppies and various pet merchandise from The Pet Place, a pet store in Southeast Houston. Destiny Elizabeth Estrada, Elmer Geovanny Velasquez-Lopez, and Carmen Montes are the accused in a case that's rendered all too real by surveillance video footage. According to KHOU, Estrada and Velasquez-Lopez have surrendered to authorities, while an arrest warrant is still out for Montes.
The crime, spanning multiple locations, saw The Pet Place lose not just three purebred puppies and a turtle but also hundreds of dollars in merchandise, with the suspects, which included a child, returning one of the puppies in the midst of a subsequent media interview. "For a 9-year-old to be involved in these kind of acts led by, you know, adults is a very bad situation," store owner Adam Abidlatif told KHOU. This incident led Abidlatif to reconsider safety measures and how he manages incidents as a business owner.
During the theft, captured on camera, a coordinated effort was evident as two women, a man, and a young girl scouted and later carried out their plan to lift the animals and goods, unsuspecting the employees, who were kept busy. The Pet Place has served the neighborhood for an extended time, and this shakeup has prompted a system revamp in the store, including additional cameras and retraining staff on distraction theft prevention tactics. Adam Abidlatif, in a statement obtained by KPRC 2, shared his distress over the young age of the girl involved and the potential risks to the stolen animals' health.
Notably, Lt. Alfonso Barbosa of the Harris County Constable Office Precinct 2 revealed that two suspects were wearing ankle monitors during the theft, which placed them directly at the scene, suggesting a stark oversight in judgement. "It just made our job a lot easier to be able to track them down and, I don't know how they thought that they were not going to get caught," Barbosa explained in an article from KHOU. In connection with the ongoing investigation, local police are urging anyone with information about the identified suspects to step forward and contact Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.
