Lt. Magic Star #ZSHQ

There was an incident. First, I need to preface this by saying that service dogs are NOT protection dogs, should not be trained to attack, and are not allowed to work in public if they are aggressive. This is why nobody was tracked, chased, taken down, and chewed on. Saturday morning, on a quick pottywalk, before heading to a seminar, a man and woman passed us on the sidewalk about a block from home. The woman asked if I was friendly and if she could pet me. I wasn't in work gear or actively on duty, so she was told yes. While she told me how cute my ears were and scratched them, her partner discreetly grabbed a bag hanging on the back of my person's wheelchair and then said they had to go and he and the woman scurried off. It took a couple of minutes to figure out it was missing. If it was dropped, I'd have alerted, but we retraced our path to be sure. The bag itself wasn't important, but the contents were. It held a driver's license, healthcare card, credit card, debit card, some prescription medication, service dog ID card, a couple dollars in change and a couple gift cards with a few dollars left on them. And a high-quality dog whistle. And some treats for me. Nobody was hurt. Cards are canceled, and thankfully, they had fraud protection, so we don't have to cover the short shopping spree they went on. But it's been a LOT of running around to fix this. The police station. The registries office a few times. The bank because we needed funds to pay for a replacement license and had to convince the bank we were us! Thank goodness we have an accessible vehicle, or this would take days. Now, the challenge is rebuilding confidence. Us dogs smell human stress, and my human's immediately spikes when we see a stranger now. I suppose she's an easy target. She can't really escape if a bad situation occurs, and she can't really chase anyone. A few years ago, our neighborhood felt really safe. The last 2 years have changed that. Addiction and homelessness have brought more crime to our neighborhood, which otherwise is a very diverse, friendly community with great people. I don't get angry often, but my hackles go up at the thought that people would see a disabled person in a wheelchair as an easy target and an opportunity to steal. What kind of people would do that? Probably, ones that didn't grow up with a good dog to teach them to make good choices. While I'd never bite them, I might 💩in their shoe if I ever saw these folks again. Although this has been a disheartening experience, I truly believe that for every one person who would do bad things to others, there are several good people who want to make the world a better place. In fact, every day, I see good humans trying to do good things and making a difference to others. I also believe that this entire incident could have been avoided if humans were required to be on leash. You don't see many humans vandalizing things or stealing when they're being walked by a dog! #XDogs