By Jeremy Weldon

Editor

Here’s a story you can tell you while visiting with your out-of-town family and friends this week and it will surely liven up any dull moments that arise from sitting around after Christmas lunch with people you don’t know very well, and have nothing in common other than a few strands of DNA.

It’s a true story, and it happened this week in Panola County. The highlights of the tale were spread across FaceGram and InstaBook I’m told, but the details of the story are what make it so interesting.

One of Panola County’s Finest came by the office early Tuesday and he looked like someone had stolen his dog. Turns out, that was exactly what had happened, and much more. The dog is now safe and recovering well, but how that came about is a one-of-a-kind story with some “goodwill toward men” at the end.

The deputy was relaxing at home Sunday when a neighbor called and said she saw someone pick up his dog at the end of his driveway and speed away. The deputy searched the roads of northwest Panola county until dark but couldn’t locate the car. He reported it to the dispatchers and they kept other officers notified over the weekend.

As a side note, many readers would be surprised to know how much of a problem dog fighting is for the Sheriff’s Department. Because the thugs and criminals who set up fights are so mobile, it’s very hard for officers to catch them actually fighting the dogs. It’s a cruel way to treat animals and the law is super tough when prosecutors can get the evidence needed to convict.

Stealing the deputy’s dog – an American Pit Bull – was definitely a felony with a stiff penalty. The thief probably took the dog because he thought it was one that could be used for fighting, although he later denied he had anything to do with such activity. The deputy’s dog is really a lap dog, spoiled close to rotten by his fiance.

Monday morning another one of our Finest saw the car described by the eyewitness Sunday and began to follow, but the driver accelerated and was soon driving almost 100 miles-per-hour on a hilly, curvy country road outside Como. The lawman lost sight of him but continued down the road. Soon he came upon the car wrecked in the middle of the road and the driver on the shoulder dazed, with minor injuries.

The car had left the road and hit a tree, smashing one side and the trunk. The driver quickly admitted that he was the dog thief and that the dog was in the trunk of the car during the wreck. The trunk lid was banged open when the car hit the tree and the stolen dog had been thrown out. It scampered off, no doubt confused and shaken.

The suspect told deputies he had taken the dog, not for fighting, but simply because he liked the dog’s looks. He admitted to putting the dog in the car trunk and taking it to his mother’s house on Hwy. 315. Later, his friends told him that a police officer had pictures on the internet of his missing dog and that people were searching for it.

Realizing the dog was indeed the one he had taken, and not wanting any problems with the law, the suspect said he put the dog back in his trunk and was going to drop him off at the same location he snatched him from when he saw a sheriff’s car behind him. He told officers he wasn’t trying to outrun them when he wrecked the car, he was just driving fast and didn’t know they were chasing him.

Fortunately, the dog named Bo was found. The sheriff told me Wednesday the deputies had decided not to charge the man with the felony. He is well-known to the officers and the sheriff told me he’s been picked up for stealing several times.  Maybe the deputies felt a little Christmas compassion for the fellow. Yes, he stole a man’s dog. But, he saw the error of his ways (let’s pretend) and was trying to return the dog when he crashed his car.

I’m glad the deputy, or his finance, got Bo back, but it’s still depressing to know that our county has an underbelly class who steals dogs for fighting and general mistreatment. What the man really needs is Jesus and a swift kick in the pants. Who knows? Maybe he will take this chance to turn from his evil toward the good. And then we would all be better.

The more I think about it, this could probably be a Hallmark Christmas Movie. The script writes itself – the pretty lady gets her loving dog back, and the bad guy is headed to jail in handcuffs when the strong, but kind, deputy decides to let him off with a warning and he promises to get a job and go to his mama’s church on Sunday just as the snowflakes begin to fall on the country setting.

Makes more sense than most of those movies I think.