MILWAUKEE — A two-month-old puppy was stolen from a teenager in the Riverwest neighborhood on North Richards Street. Now, the teenager and her mother are making a plea to the people responsible to return her.
Thirteen-year-old Gemora Rivas was taking a break from her online classes, walking her family puppy down the sidewalk. That's when she says four men in a vehicle pulled up beside her, some of the men jumped out of the car, pushed her to the ground and the stole the puppy right from her arms.
"The passenger took the dog and that’s when they sped up and the leash was hanging out the door, and I tried to get the leash,” Rivas says.
Two-month-old Jasmine, a pit bull puppy with two black spots on her back and black and white tail, was stolen from Rivas as she was walking the puppy Wednesday morning around 10 a.m. The puppy was given to the family two weeks ago as a birthday present for Rivas’ seven-year-old sister.
The family now distraught the puppy is gone.
“She meant like a newborn baby, she was just like a human, even like the day she would come by my feet under the table and stuff, and she would sit there,” Rivas says.
“She cried but then she said she was happy they didn’t take her sister,” says Patrice Green, Rivas’ mother.
Green says although she is heartbroken the puppy was stolen, she is truly thankful her daughter is OK.
“It’s sick to think someone would do that to a 13-year-old child while they are walking their dog. I would hope they would feel some kind of remorse,” Green says.
The situation is leaving Green shaken up.
“For four people to take the dog, it doesn’t make sense. I don’t think their intentions were just the dog, so that makes me nervous there are more kids on this block,” Green says.
Both mother and daughter hope the people responsible have a heart and return the puppy.
“They know they did wrong and I think they should come back give us the dog and apologize... Go to the humane society, just do anything, but try to keep her because she is the girl's puppy, she’s our family dog,” Green says.
Anyone with information on Jasmine is asked to contact Milwaukee police or crime stoppers at 414224tips.