Pay us £500 or your dog dies, thieves tell victim

A London man has appealed for help in tracking down his dog after it was kidnapped and held for ransom.

Thieves told Ian Kynoch that as they had not been able to steal his tools, they had taken his pet instead and demanded £500 — threatening to kill the dog if he did not pay up.

But they failed to keep their end of the bargain and the rescue dog has not been seen for two weeks.

Mr Kynoch, a handyman, had briefly left the black-and-white Jack Russell cross in his van with the window partly down for air as he visited a DIY shop. When he returned to the car park of the B&Q in Western Avenue in Acton, the window had been forced down and his pet was gone.

As Mr Kynoch, 35, searched the area, he received a phone call from two men on a withheld number who said they were watching him and had his dog.

They said that as they could not get to Mr Kynoch's locked-away tools, they had taken the pet, who carried his owner's phone number on his collar. They demanded £500 for the dog's safe return but hung up when Mr Kynoch said that he had already called the police.

"They did threaten to kill the dog," said Mr Kynoch. "Whether they were joking I don't know. But it wasn't funny. They are clearly savages."

Mr Kynoch, who is originally from South Africa, called his girlfriend Ruth Cooper, 31, with whom he lives in Wembley, asking her to bring cash to pool with his own.

They waited three hours in the car park, in the hope that the thieves would call again to arrange to swap the money for the dog. "Nothing came of it," said Mr Kynoch, who believes the reference to the police may have scared off the thieves. He has not heard from them since that afternoon, August 17, and is increasingly worried about his 19-month-old pet, adopted from Battersea Dogs Home in January.

As a neutered crossbreed, the dog is unlikely to be worth much in financial terms. "He's very bubbly, friendly — overfriendly, unfortunately," said Mr Kynoch.

"He's just happy to be around people. Anyone who has ever met the little guy always says how amazing he is. I think it's because of his friendly nature the thieves may possibly not be getting back to me. I can only presume they have taken him home and the kids have said, What a nice dog, can we keep him?'"

Mr Kynoch has plastered the area with missing notices but is not hopeful of a happy ending. "If these men are callous enough to have taken him, how do you get across to people who would be that evil?" he said.

He did not want to release his dog's name for fear that coupled with the information on the pet's microchip, it could make him easier to sell. A Metropolitan Police spokesman said inquiries were ongoing.