WSVN — Where is the little kid? Not a child, a four-legged baby goat. A South Florida woman says she returned it to the store owner. He says, "No you didn’t," and now the goat is missing, and the battle turns to the cost of the goat, which is why they called Help Me Howard with Patrick Fraser for this "ba-a-a-a-a-d" story.
This is a kid. That’s what you call a baby goat. A kid you also call them something else: really cute.
Lori Fluellen: "It was just precious, it was just beautiful, it was sweet. It was going, ‘bahhhh.’"
Lori was at a pet store in Davie to look at the birds when her granddaughter saw the pygmy goats for sale.
Lori Fluellen: "I really enjoyed being with the goat, but I had no intention until my granddaughter started, ‘Please, please, please.’"
Lori lives in an house and knew she couldn’t have a big goat walking around, ’till the store owner told her, ‘No problem.’
Lori Fluellen: "He told me it would be no larger than 20 pounds. It would be really easy to take care of ’cause it would use a litter box."
Lori paid $530 for the African pygmy goat. Then she got home and started Googling her to find out more about her little kid.
Lori Fluellen: "When I Googled ‘miniature pygmy goat,’ it said most of them are 35 pounds or more, but it said it can be up to 55 pounds."
She also found out her homeowners association doesn’t allow farm animals, so two hours later, she was back at the pet store to return her billy goat.
Lori Fluellen: "I said, ‘Well, I’m giving you the goat back. Here is the goat, here is the milk, here is the litter box.’"
And then her strange story gets really strange. First she was told she couldn’t return the goat and get her money back, only exchange it for another animal.
Lori Fluellen: "It does not say on either sales slip that I can’t return, and there is nothing posted in the store that said that."
Lori says she left the goat with the owner of the store, went home and disputed the charge on her American Express card. And then…
Lori Fluellen: "And now he has told American Express that I never returned the goat, I’m committing fraud, and I have the goat and I have the money."
Lori says the owner had the goat when she left. He says she never even came back with the little kid.
Lori Fluellen: "He had the goat in his hands. There’s five people who can write an affidavit that he had the goat in his hands."
Well, Howard, no one put a chip in the goat to determine it’s the same goat, making it "he said, she said," so legally, how do you solve this?
Howard Finkelstein: "You solve this with witnesses. Lori says her son was with her when she returned the goat, and she told other people she was taking it back. The store owner can show his security cameras. That would answer the question definitively. And his word that the goat wasn’t returned in small claims court, a judge will have to decide who has the goat."
William Kalichman: "As far as I know, she has the animal and she has the money."
We went over to talk to William Kalichman, who owns Bill’s Birds.
He says his security cameras weren’t working the day Lori says she returned the goat. But he is adamant that Lori did not return the animal. And he told us if it’s returned, he’ll now return her money.
William Kalichman: "If she brings the animal back, she can get a credit or she can get something else for her money. I would gladly credit her card if she returns the animal."
Who has the goat that is now 10 weeks old? Depends on who you ask.
Lori Fluellen: "And I returned the goat, the bottle of milk, the goat milk."
William Kalichman: "She did not return the animal."
Patrick Fraser: "The credit card company is still trying to decide whose side to take. If Lori made a mistake, it’s that she did not get a return receipt when she says brought the goat back. She says it’s because her granddaughter was crying and she wanted to get her out of there quickly, but without that return receipt, it could help the store owner in court. So if you return something, make sure you get a receipt in case things go crazy."
Got a ba-a-a-a-a-a-d situation that has you penned up? Need someone to herd you towards a solution? Contact us. We won’t kid you. We wanna help you. With this Help Me Howard, I’m Patrick Fraser, 7News.
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