Dognapping Story A Hoax, Shelter Worker Faces Felony: Police

CHICAGO HEIGHTS, IL - The shelter dog stolen from a van driven by a staff member at the South Suburban Humane Society in Chicago Heights was not taken by an armed man who pulled a gun on the shelter worker, but rather by the shelter worker himself. Humane Society CEO Emily Klehm updated those following the case with that disturbing development in a Facebook Live video Thursday afternoon.

Klehm said earlier in the day that the employee, later identified by police as 22-year-old Aaron Greer of Manteno, was driving the van full of pets to a spay/neuter clinic at about 6 a.m. when he saw a dog tied to a stop sign post near 10th and Halsted streets in Chicago Heights. The original story was that the shelter worker went outside to untie the dog and while he was doing so, a man put a gun to his head and ended up stealing Polly, a beloved bulldog at the shelter, while holding the gun up to the employee.

It was confirmed later by Klehm that the staff member took Polly himself, gave her to a friend and fabricated the story. Police were able to locate Polly, who is now safe and back at the shelter.

Police said Greer gave the dog to a friend who was waiting four blocks away in the parking lot of a Church's Chicken restaurant. According to Chicago Heights Police Chief Thomas Rogers, felony charges are being sought against Greer for falsifying a police report.

Klehm praised the Chicago Heights Police Department for their immediate attention to the case. The employee's status at the shelter, she said, is "obvious."

Photo: Polly, via the South Suburban Humane Society