Y
Yaps
Man Pays $10,000 Ransom to Recover Yorkshire Terrier
Aug. 1, 2004? A day after Frank Compton's dog disappeared, the Valley Springs, Calif., man got a threatening phone call.
"Basically, it said that we have your little dog, Sandy, and if you want him back, you're going to have to put up $10,000 or you won't be seeing him again," Compton said.
Compton was frantic. Sandy, a 10-year-old Yorkshire terrier, has been the 80-year-old retiree's sole companion ever since his wife died.
"We're pretty close, like glue," Compton said.
So he withdrew $10,000 from his life savings and went to deliver the cash at the instructed location. A man with a knife met him there, he said.
"He said your little dog is tied up around a stake and he's whining and crying for you," Compton said.
But the man took off with the money without producing the dog, leaving Compton is search for Sandy, who was nowhere to be found.
"I had given him up," Compton said. "I figured I'd never be seeing him again."
?Miracle?
Hours later, back at home, Compton heard a car door slam. He looked out, and Sandy came running up the sidewalk.
"The miracle still happened," Compton said. "I couldn't accept it at first that he was really there."
Police are helping Compton work up a sketch of the suspect.
"It's sad," Valley Springs Sheriff's Detective Chris Villegas said. "It's really sad. It's sad that somebody would even think of doing this to begin with."
Compton, meanwhile, says he does not regret shelling out $10,000 to get Sandy back.
"It all depends [on] ? how much you love something," he said.
