Teffiney Worthy got her French bulldog Hendrix to help her cope with her grief after another pup only months before drowned during the flooding of a doggy day care center in Washington, D.C. But now Hendrix is missing after a heartbroken Worthy reported she was robbed of her new furry friend during a near-deadly encounter.
It was just after 4 p.m. on Sunday when Worthy was approached by a man holding a taser, according to a statement provided to Law&Crime on Monday by the Metropolitan Police Department. The man stopped Worthy at her doorway and threatened to kill her if she did not turn the 6-month-old dog over to him.
In an interview with WTOP, Worthy said the man ran up the stairs to her Brookland neighborhood home and had seemed to emerge from one of two black cars parked on the street in front of it. She also told the local radio station she thought she might have seen her assailant earlier that afternoon at a local gas station.
A brown and white French bulldog, left, was stolen from a woman in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 26, 2023. Police are looking to identify the suspect, pictured right. Photos courtesy of the Metropolitan Police Department.
Police have described the vehicles as having tinted windows. Officers also identified the car that the suspect hopped into after snatching Hendrix specifically, as a Nissan with paper tags. Worthy said the man was roughly 5 feet, 5 inches tall, thin and wore mostly black clothing except for his light-colored jeans and colorful shoes.
In a video Worthy shared to Twitter on Sunday, the suspect can be seen quickly approaching and snatching the dog before he takes off towards the waiting cars. Worthy’s back is to a security camera posted above her entryway and as she cautiously decides whether to pursue further, the suspect gets into the Nissan, leaving her crying out and crouching on the ground
Video and picture of the robbery of my puppy, Hendrix in Brookland DC NE..Please help me find my baby.. Please repost, fund, and pray.. Every second counts. pic.twitter.com/JwNBdpsrI6
— Teffiney (@Teffiney86) November 26, 2023
Metropolitan Police reported offering a $10,000 reward for anyone with information on the identity of the man who stole the dog. As of Monday, Worthy had raised roughly half of a $7,500 goal she posted to GoFundMe that she writes on the website will be used to “help with funding to find a private investigator and reward money” to aid her dog’s safe return.
The brazen theft of Hendrix comes after Worthy’s puppy Memphis was killed this August at a center in northeast Washington, D.C., known as District Dogs. The doggy day care and boarding facility was inundated by a massive downpour of rain and flooded. In addition to Worthy’s dog, nine other dogs were also killed in the flood, WTOP reported this summer. The owner has since shuttered the business completely.
Roughly a week before Worthy’s French Bulldog was stolen, a man in southeast Washington, D.C., was robbed at gunpoint of his three French Bulldogs by a trio of male robbers. One of the men was holding a “big rifle-type gun” he told WRC. It is not clear at this time if there is any connection between those who took Hendrix and those who took the man’s three “Frenchies.”
Purebred French Bulldogs can fetch a sizeable sum and their theft might be something of a pattern in the District of Columbia. The Washington Post reported that two French Bulldogs were stolen at gunpoint in southwest Washington, D.C., this July.
The problem also seems to be longstanding: in September 2022, one dog thief snuck into a man’s northwest Washington, D.C., hotel room in order to steal his French Bulldog, Hugo. Hugo and his owner were reunited last fall but the thief was not found, the Post reported.
Worthy did not immediately return a request to Law&Crime on Monday for comment.
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