NewsLocal News

Actions

Tooele serial leash cutter causes dog to escape, get hit by car

Posted at 6:19 PM, Feb 05, 2018
and last updated 2018-02-06 09:23:53-05

TOOELE, Utah - An odd crime is happening in Tooele. Multiple residents posted on social media stating someone keeps coming into their yards and cutting the chains or leads they use to keep their dogs on their properties.

One of those dog owners is Michelle Jaynes. She said her dog, Sorenson, needs to be chained up whenever outside without supervision or else her dog will wiggle her way through their fence.

Since October, someone has cut Sorenson's chain four times.

"Then two more got cut after that, and so we got a lock on our gate," Jaynes said, which she added did not work. "And then this one got cut Saturday night.”

Looking at the "chain", Jaynes showed FOX 13 that it is a thick, braided, multi-wire cable that was clearly cut through, and could not have been chewed through.

Jaynes took to Facebook to vent on the Tooele 411 Facebook group and found out this is happening to other people, too.

Sharon Ann Slater Versluis told FOX 13 someone opened her gate and let her dog run out when she had let it outside to use the bathroom. Next thing she knew, a woman carried her dog, Lailah, to the front door because she accidentally hit and killed the dog with her car. Then it almost happened a second time. Versluis called police.

It also happened to Jaynes.

“We’ve actually already had a dog get hit because people opened my gate. I don’t want my dogs to die because people think that I’m neglecting them. They obviously have food and water and shelter, so it’s annoying that people are coming in my yard and doing that," she said.

Jaynes said she brings her dogs in at night, when it's storming and when it's too cold. She plans on making a police report.

Tooele police said they need more people to report so they can investigate.

“We can’t take a report on social media," said Sgt. Tanya Kalma, Tooele Police Public Information Officer. "Anybody that believes they’ve been a victim of crime needs to go through the appropriate channels to report that to an officer, including contacting our local dispatch center either through the non emergency line or emergency 911.”

If you have any information about this crime or if it’s happened to you, give police a call.