A woman has been accused of stealing two dogs during a fatal crash in Osceola County, troopers said.
The crash happened Dec. 17 at State Road 60 and Peavine Road, troopers said.
Marritsa Melendez, 55, of Danielson, Connecticut, told troopers she was hurt in the four-car crash and her father was dead when a woman approached the vehicle and told Melendez she would take care of her Shih-poo puppies while Melendez went to the hospital, investigators said.
When troopers arrived at the scene of the crash, they said no one approached them about the puppies.
The puppies were later found in an abandoned home in South Florida after the residents had been evicted, investigators said.
It’s unclear if the people who were evicted were the same people accused of taking the dogs.
The dogs were taken to a local shelter where workers questioned why two purebred puppies were left in the home. A worker began searching on the web and found a Craigslist post about the missing puppies and on Thursday they were reunited with Melendez’s boyfriend, troopers said.
The puppies are now microchipped.
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