A Burbank grocery store turned into the scene of a strange double theft when a 42-year-old man allegedly grabbed a customer's small dog straight out of a shopping cart and walked off with it after store staff recovered a stash of meat he tried to sneak out of the store. Burbank police caught up with him and the dog at a nearby bus stop.
According to NBC Los Angeles, officers responded to a grocery store in the 3700 block of West Burbank Boulevard after employees reported a theft in progress. Store staff recovered the meat the man allegedly tried to take, but by then he had already grabbed the dog and left the premises. Burbank police officers located the suspect and the dog at a nearby bus stop and made the arrest shortly after.
The dog was returned to its owner, and the man was booked on suspicion of both grand theft and petty theft, according to the same report. That dual booking reflects two separate alleged crimes rolled into one chaotic incident: the attempted meat theft and the alleged dog snatching.
Why the Charges Split Into Two Categories
California law treats theft of a companion animal differently depending on its value. Under Penal Code Section 487e, stealing a companion animal worth more than $950 counts as grand theft, a wobbler offense that prosecutors can pursue as either a felony carrying up to three years in jail or a misdemeanor, according to the Kraut Law Group. Meanwhile, taking property valued at $950 or less falls under petty theft statutes, a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in county jail and a $1,000 fine, per the Shouse Law Group.
Notably, pets haven't always carried this level of legal protection in California. Effective January 1, 2023, Assembly Bill 1290 rewrote state property crime statutes to replace references to “dogs” with “companion animals,” explicitly extending full theft protections to cats and other household pets under Penal Code Section 491, according to legislative records tracked by LegiScan. Separately, state law also criminalizes stealing an animal for commercial purposes such as resale or slaughter under Penal Code Section 487g, a distinct offense punishable by up to a year in county jail or state prison, according to FindLaw.
A Rare Fast Recovery Amid a National Spike in Pet Theft
The Burbank case stands out against a grim national backdrop. Dog thefts across the United States rose about 40% from 2022, with an estimated two million dogs stolen nationwide each year, according to American Kennel Club data cited by the Royal Examiner. The same reporting notes that about 15% of dog thefts nationwide happen while dogs are being walked and another 15% occur when dogs are left unattended in cars.
French bulldogs have been described as targets because they are small, popular, and expensive. In Burbank, the alleged thief took a small dog from a shopping cart.
What makes this case especially unusual, though, is the outcome. The available reporting does not establish a nationwide stolen-dog reunification rate. An estimated 1% to 5% of reported dog theft cases result in criminal charges, since many are initially treated as simple lost-dog reports. Burbank police recovering the dog and arresting a suspect within the same encounter made this a particularly swift resolution.
The Emotional Toll Behind the Statistics
Beyond the legal and statistical angles, pet theft can be an emotional ordeal for owners. For the Burbank dog owner, the ordeal ended quickly — but for many families across the country whose pets vanish from cars, sidewalks, or store entrances, the wait for answers rarely resolves this fast.
