Reward for Dogs Lost in Eagle Rock Boosted to $3,000

An exhausting week after Natalie Tomlinson’s relentless but so-far unsuccessful search for her two dogs lost in Eagle Rock, the marketing executive has increased the reward on each of her pets from $500 to $1,500 and is hoping that somebody will report on the woman who appears to have bought one of her dogs from a man off a Highland Park street.

Last Friday, Tomlinson boosted from $1,000 to $3,000 the combined reward for information leading to her lost dogs’ rescue on her website, which be viewed by clicking here. She has received no calls so far.

Click this link to read about the background of Tomlinson’s loss of her dogs at the home of her in-laws on Toland Way on November 9.

Who Is This Woman?

On Nov. 14, Tomlinson heard on three separate occasions over the phone from a woman who identified herself as a Pasadena resident, Darla, and admitted she might have Tomlinson’s 5-year-old Shih Tzu-mix female, Libby, who is micro chipped. After agreeing to meet Tomlinson at to identify the dog, the caller left a voicemail for Tomlinson, abruptly backing off from the appointment. That was the last Tomlinson heard from the caller, who didn’t leave a callback number.

Transcript of Caller’s Voicemail

Here is a rough transcript of the caller’s voicemail:

“Hello, hi, it’s me Darla again. Umm … (three-second pause) I talked to my family about it and they said I’d probably be better off by—you know—trying to get her scanned. They’re concerned that maybe—you know—the dog may not be yours. You may say that it’s yours—that it’s your dog, you know. (Pause) I don’t know what you think of it … trying to make sense of it. I’ll take her to get scanned. You know, it’s the same thing—if she’s really yours, it’ll come up on the microchip and then I can either leave her at the place or meet up with you or whatever. But, um … sorry, I will not be bringing her today.”

Police Report Filed

In a related development, Tomlinson was also able to file a “property theft report” with the LAPD Northeast Community Station—over the phone from her home in the City of Azusa, off the 210 freeway. (An officer at the station incorrectly told Tomlinson last week that she cannot file a report about missing pets—“I think the person at the desk didn’t think a pet is property,” Tomlinson reckons.)

As required by the report’s guidelines, Tomlinson listed the value of her pets at a combined $1,800. River, her 2-1/2-year-old Shih Tzu male, is worth $1,000, based on the $900, plus taxes, that the Tomlinson family spent on buying the dog from a pet store in Monrovia as a Christmas gift for Tomlinson in 2009.

And Libby, a 5-year-old Shih Tzu-mix female, is worth $800. (Tomlinson did not spend her own money purchasing Libby, who was bought for $800 by a coworker of Tomlinson’s next-door neighbor.)

Direct Appeal to Mysterious Caller

Tomlinson has also made a direct appeal to the caller to contact her without any fear of facing the possible legal consequences of her actions, which were aired in a CBS news clip last Wednesday, hours after Tomlinson posted an announcement about her lost dogs on Eagle Rock Patch. “I think she’s probably reading the Patch about this story,” Tomlinson said.

Tomlinson can be reached at (626) 215-4323.