Young Woman Searches For Stolen Dog Tags Of Pleasanton War Hero

PLEASANTON, CA — The dog tags hanging from the rear view mirror of Katie Regalia’s car may not have had much monetary value, which is why she wonders why anyone bothered to break in and steal them.

But their emotional value is enormous, which is why she’s trying everything she can think of to get them back.

Regalia, 26, had the tags since she was 12 years old. They belonged to her great-uncle, Ambrose Regalia, a Pleasanton native and Amador Valley High School graduate who was an anti-aircraft gunner and the city’s first casualty of World War II.

Before he was killed in a Japanese Navy attack at Alaska’s Dutch Harbor in 1942 at just 22 years old, he was a celebrated basketball and baseball star who was even drafted to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers. When he left for the army, about 150 Pleasanton residents gathered to send him off. He was posthumously awarded a Purple Heart, which Regalia’s uncle still keeps.

The Ambrose D. Regalia Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6298 was founded in 1946 and still stands in Pleasanton today. Regalia Court, just off Vineyard Avenue near First Street, is also named for him.

Ambrose is buried in the St. Augustine Catholic Cemetery, and Katie made many trips there over her childhood to pay her respects and to visit her grandparents.

Katie said she displayed his tags in her car to motivate herself. “I had them pretty much for every game, every interview, everything I’d ever been on, and I had them in my car as a reminder to work hard and accomplish the things he wasn’t able to do,” she told Patch. “It gave me that little reminder that he’s with you, he’s been through hard times too, you can do this, just keep working.”

Someone stole the tags out of her Jeep Cherokee last Thursday in San Francisco’s Mission District. A house fire many years ago destroyed most of the photos of him, so they were some of the family’s only remaining mementos.

Katie put fliers all over the community offering a $500 reward, no questions asked. She also went to the San Francisco Police Department, who reportedly told her that because there were no witnesses, they wouldn’t look into it.

Katie, who grew up in the Mission District, said she’s observed a dramatic increase in car break-ins over the past few years. “I would say it’s gotten exceptionally worse in that they take anything and everything, whereas before they would break into your car if they saw something. Now every car is broken into pretty much for no reason at all, and things are taken that have no value,” she said.

Still, she has been moved by all the support she’s received, particularly after ABC7 reached out to publish a story. In a strange way, she is also proud of how attached she grew to them.

“At the end of the day, I’m grateful my family is so devastated for losing this, because it shows how proud we were of our family and our history, so at the end of the day, because I feel so devastated it’s a reminder of how proud I am of where I came from,” she said.

No one can steal that pride away.

Anyone with information on the tags can contact the family at 415-967-8254, or email lregalia2@yahoo.com.