Surveillance Video Captures Texas Dognappers in the Act as They Steal Pup

The thieves apparently didn't realize they had been caught on camera.

Surveillance video caught a dognapping in Texas and the footage of the heartless abduction has gone viral. 

In the video, the thief can be seen reaching over a fence and grabbing the 10-week-old French mastiff bulldog named Chipper in broad daylight. 
  
An adult dog was seen barking furiously as the little guy was taken away, and the footage also shows an accomplice talking on a cellphone. 
 
With a cigarette dangling from his mouth and the puppy tucked under his arm, the dognapper, wearing dark glasses hurries into a Cadillac SUV as the other dog continues to bark.

Matt Ivy is the stolen pup's owner. He's a Dallas firefighter who breeds mastiffs in his spare time.

"I panicked, looked in the yard for him. I saw he wasn't there, checked the security cameras. I was livid," he told Inside Edition. 

It's a relatively desolate area in Mesquite, Texas, so the thieves may have thought they could zip in and zip out without anyone seeing what they were up to, but they weren't counting on the security camera catching their every moment.

The footage, later posted online, has now been viewed more than 7,000,000 times.

Right after the theft, the suspects took the puppy to an auto body shop, where they sold Chipper for $300 dollars. On the legitimate market, Chipper would be worth $3,000. 

On Wednesday night, the honest mechanic returned Chipper to his rightful owner.

"The guy that bought the dog and gave me a call and suspected that it was mine," Ivy said. "We arranged [for me] to come and get it."

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