Puppy-nap unsolved

Bugzy isn’t back. The whereabouts of the year-old Yorkie pup, who disappeared near Ferry Point Park on Saturday, January 16, remain unknown.

Neighbors witnessed an apparent puppy-napper yank Bugzy into a white car but missed the license plate number.

Rohr Place resident Angelica Alicea and her children plastered the neighborhood with “lost dog” fliers and alerted the 45th Precinct. No luck.

“We haven’t heard anything,” Alicea said. “People want to help but still we have no dog.”

Bugzy slipped outdoors amid preparations for a Sweet 16 birthday party on January 16. When Alicea returned from a trip to E. Tremont Avenue, he was gone.

On Brush Avenue near Wenner Place, a neighbor had bad news. Someone in a white car had grabbed the pooch and sped away, the neighbor told Alicea.

Bugzy belongs to her ten-year old daughter, Clarissa, a fifth grader at P.S. 72. He was a present from Clarissa’s father. The pup used to sleep next to Clarissa and her three-year old sister, Angelina.

“The kids are okay,” Alicea said. “Clarissa cries sometimes. I tell her not to give up.”

Bugzy is white and tan with brown ears, a black nose and brown snout. Alicea described the pooch as gentle and lovable.

Pelham Gardens resident Sandra Belviso shivered when she read about the pup in the Bronx Times Reporter. Three Thursday mornings in December and January, a middle-aged man in a small white sports utility vehicle harassed her daughter and the family’s three-year old Yorkie.

When Belviso’s daughter and pup were out on a walk, the man pulled up alongside and motioned for her to come close. Belviso’s daughter caught the first three digits of a license plate number: N35.

Meanwhile, Senator Jeff Klein has drafted a bill that would make pet theft a felony offense, rather than a misdemeanor. Pet theft is currently prosecuted, if at all, as petit larceny – legally no different than the theft of any stolen property.

Klein’s bill would create first and second degree felony offenses for pet theft. Second-degree pet theft would result in up to four years in jail. First-degree pet theft, for cases when pets are stolen to be sold to science lab or are stolen and harmed, would result in up to seven years in jail.

“When a pet is stolen, it can be traumatic for the owner,” Klein said. “Unfortunately, the law does not currently acknowledge the severity of loss in these sad situations.”

Alicea applauded the senator’s bill.

“Bugzy is like another child to me,” she said. “I love him.”

Phone (347) 865-8078 with information on Bugzy’s whereabouts.

Reach reporter Daniel Beekman at 718 742-3383 or dbeekman@cnglocal.com