Dog Inside Car Stolen At Gunpoint Found Safe: Homewood Police

HOMEWOOD, IL — A Homewood couple was relieved Friday night after their dog that had been inside their car when it was stolen at gunpoint was located later that evening. The dog was healthy and back home with its owners just hours after the ordeal.

The vehicular hijacking took place just before 6 p.m. at Millennium Park in Homewood. The couple took to social media Friday evening to plead for people in the area to keep an eye out for their beloved pup, an 11-month-old golden retriever named Cooper. Just a few hours later, Mary Beth and Kevin O'Donnell were reunited with their furry family member.

"We just had a call from the Homewood police and Cooper has been found, he's at someone’s house in Hazel Crest," said Mary Beth O'Donnell. "My husband and son-in-law are on the way to pick him up. Prayers answered!"

The couple was at the park, 186th and Harwood Avenue, transferring items from one's car into the other, when a suspect jumped into the driver's seat of Kevin O'Donnell's white 2015 Subaru Forester.

The suspect — then pointing a gun in O'Donnell's face as he was in the passenger seat — demanded O'Donnell get out of the car, and began to back up, nearly running O'Donnell over after he fell out of the car, he told Patch. The offender fled, heading north on Harwood — with Cooper in the backseat. Homewood Police were called to the scene, and Chicago Police briefly spotted the vehicle via helicopter before losing it, O'Donnell said.

The couple was desperately hoping their beloved pup hadn't been harmed or lost in the theft. Cooper recently had surgery several weeks ago, and his forelegs are shaved where the IVs were placed. He also has a shaven patch several inches large between his shoulder blades, and a very noticeable 8-inch scar on his belly, O'Donnell told Patch.

"He’s gotta be just petrified," O'Donnell told Patch before they had located Cooper. "We’re his whole world."

Cooper was found hours later on the porch of a home in Hazel Crest. Homewood police are investigating the vehicular hijacking. The SUV has still not been located.

Anyone who may have information related to the incident is asked to contact the Criminal Investigation Unit at 708/206-3420.