NORTH MIAMI, FLA. (WSVN) - It was a heartfelt reunion for a South Florida visitor and her beloved dog days after, she said, carjackers stole her friend’s car with the blind pet still inside.
7News captured the woman, who identified herself as Valentina, as she cradled Tina, her 14-year-old dog, Saturday night.
“Yesterday I told my family, ‘I cannot see how I could sleep until we are reunited,'” she said.
But now Valentina can sleep soundly, knowing her precious pooch is safe in her arms again.
Tina, who is blind and partly deaf, was missing for about 35 hours, but to her owner, it felt like an eternity.
“It was just this moment of terror,” she said.
Valentina, who is visiting from Canada, said she was being dropped off by her friend at the house where she’s staying in North Miami, near Northwest 135th Street and Seventh Avenue, at around midnight on Friday.
Speaking with 7News hours later, Valentina said two armed men walked up and forcibly took the car with her dog still inside.
“I heard this incredible screaming, and it was my friend’s voice,” she said. “She said that he shoved a gun against her.”
Although she was in shock, Valentina said she quickly focused all of her energy into finding Tina. She talked to several news outlets, posted about her dog’s theft online and even made flyers.
“‘I’ve got to find her, I’ve got to find her, I’ve got to find her.’ I could not think of anything else,” she said.
On Saturday morning, Valentina said, she got an anonymous call.
“She said, ‘Just now, my friend saw the car just now, and your dog was in the back, and she’s not doing well,'” she said.
Without hesitation, Valentina got a ride to the address in Opa-Locka, where she found the car and Tina inside.
“I didn’t even look to see if any of our purses were there or anything because, again, my focus was on Tina,” she said.
Valentina said her dog looked tired and dehydrated but overall is doing OK.
“So, immediately, the focus was to get her cool,” she said.
This isn’t the way she imagined her trip to South Florida would go, but she said she’s thankful to everyone who helped reunite her with Tina.
“Immense gratitude, and knowing, too that I really feel that we did it as a community, and so, this sense of well-being and gratitude, and actually, hope in humanity,” she said.
Valentina said North Miami Police will continue to search for the people responsible for the carjacking.
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