Mangled Topiary Dog Returned To Bakery By Thief Caught On Video

PROSPECT HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — The couple who stole a Brooklyn bakery's topiary dog came back “like thieves in the night" to return the newly mangled pup after video of the theft went viral, the pup's owner said.

“The whole thing is just bizarre,” said Kim Vann, the owner of Bakery on Bergen whose visibly damaged green canine was dumped outside her shop in a black garbage bag late Sunday night. “Why did you go beat the dog up?”

Peabody the Boxwood Topiary reappeared after the woman who stole it was caught on camera kicking the dog over, picking him up and walked away from the bakery on the corner of Bergen Street and Washington Avenue Saturday at about 6 p.m., Vann said.

The same camera caught a man in a hoodie sneaking up to Bakery on Bergen, dropping a black garbage bag outside the shop then slinking away.

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"The man that is seen covered up like a bank robber," Vann wrote in her Instagram caption. "It was stolen for s---s and giggles but no one connected to me has found this act of foolishness funny in the least bit."

Peabody's capture was first discovered by Vann’s 11-year-old daughter Saturday, one day before the girl was slated to head to sleep-away camp in Maine.

“Her dad passed away and she she’s going to a camp for children who have lost siblings and family,” Vann said. “Part of that time was spent trying to explain why people steal.”

Part of that time was also spent filing an official police report, posting footage of the theft to Instagram and watching it go viral, Vann said.

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The viral video, which was also posted by Vann’s friend and radio personality Angela Yee, even caught the attention of the woman who stole the Peabody, Vann said.

“I saw the video of me stealing your ivy dog and i am so sorry,” the woman wrote in a message sent to both Vann and Yee. “I apologize for taking your property without permission and definitely regret being so stupid.”

The apology, and the top secret return of her damaged property in the dead of night, did not impress its recepient.

“If you were really apologizing, it would be face-to-face,” she said, "not returning it like thieves in the night."

Peabody, whom Vann estimated was worth about $170, was a gift from a television show that helped her renovate Bakery on Bergen earlier this summer, she said.

Vann could not disclose the name of the show — which will air her episode in early October — but said it helped her revitalize the shop after “a rough couple of years.”

"It's a bigger issue than the fake dog," Vann said. "This man is my neighbor ... You don't do things like that."

But Vann also admitted she wants to see the silver lining. She’s glad the video has people talking about gentrification in the neighborhood — “It’s very racially charged and it’s a discussion that needs to be had” — and she even hosted a Doggone Tuesday where she passed around lemon bourbon cake bites.

“It’s taking lemons and making lemonade, only in this case it was lemon cake,” Vann said. “If you don’t keep your sense of humor, you’ll go crazy.”

Vann reported Peabody’s return to police, whom she said will be handling the incident, and were also “very annoyed” by the theft, according to the bakery owner.

Vann said the company that made Peabody has promised to send her a replacement, free of charge.

Header photo by Kathleen Culliton