A viral video is circulating on social media showing a woman hanging on for dear life onto the hood of a speeding car after suspects stole her French bulldog.
It happened earlier this month in downtown Los Angeles.
Ali Zacharias told local Fox affiliate KTTV she was eating at a Whole Foods with her dog, Onyx, on Jan. 18, when someone snatched the dog and took off running. Zacharias ran after the dognapper who jumped into a car. She stood in front of the car in hopes they wouldn’t go forward. But the driver lurched ahead.
“It’s hard to have them ripped away from you. I wasn’t willing to just let him go,” Zacharias said. “My last resort was to stand in front of the car and tell them not to go, and they drove right into me, and it pushed me onto the hood, and I just wasn’t going to leave the car at that point. And I held on and they took off.”
Zacharias said the car was going as fast as 40 mph as she held on. The driver made a turn and she fell off. There were three women and one man in their mid-to-late 20s in the car, she said.
A video showed Zacharias holding on as the car, a white Kia Forte, barreled down the street.
Because of their popularity and high value, French bulldogs have been a target for theft, most notably when Lady Gaga’s three dogs were stolen in 2021. The breed is the most stolen in the U.S., the American Kennel Club says.
As for Onyx, Zacharias just wants him to be returned.
“Please, just sell him back to us at this point,” said Zacharias, who was not seriously injured. “Like, we don’t care about anything except getting him back. So we’re not looking to press charges, all we’re looking to do is recover our baby.”
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