Suspicious Hot Dogs Found in Des Plaines Yard, Possibly Injected with Harmful Substance

Possibly tainted hot dogs found on the lawn of a condominium building in the 1200 block of East Perry Street in Des Plaines.

Des Plaines police are investigating a report of tainted hot dogs injected with a bluish-green substance that were found outside a condominium building in Des Plaines.

Mel Dziedzic, a receptionist at Riser Animal Hospital in Skokie, said in a Facebook post that a client brought the hot dogs to the vet clinic after her dog tried to grab one of them during a walk on Tuesday evening.

The hot dogs were found in the 1200 block of East Perry Street. Police have not yet determined what the substance is or whether it is poison. Dziedzic referred to the substance in a Facebook post as being rat poison.

After taking a picture of the tainted hot dogs on her Facebook page, the post went viral and was shared 6,200 times:

“Everybody knows that you do not need to put rat poison in hot dogs for rats to eat it. It pains me to say it, but the creep that put these out was trying to harm dogs. PLEASE be careful when walking your pets. Dogs pick up so many things before we can even catch them, so just please remember that people are horrible and that the outside ground unfortunately cannot always be trusted. PLEASE SHARE IF YOU LIVE IN CHICAGO OR SURROUNDING SUBURBS.”

“We don’t know what was inside the hot dog,” said Erica Flint, practice manager for Riser Animal Hospital. “We haven’t had any [dogs] come in here that were sickened by eating food left outside.”

Des Plaines Police Chief Bill Kushner told the Chicago Tribune that officers went to the condominium building on Wednesday morning but did not find any pieces of hot dogs on the premises.Police also asked neighbors if they noticed any recent suspicious activity in the neighborhood.

It is not known if the pieces of hot dogs were intentionally put on the lawn to harm dogs.

Kushner said the condominium board “were very supportive and agreed to cooperate,” the Tribune reported.

Police have received no reports of sick or injured dogs.

The police chief said for residentsto call 911 if they found any suspicious food left outside that could possibly injure pets.