A dog that went missing outside of a Philadelphia Wawa store last month was found safe after 18 days, his owners announced.
On November 15 around 7:30 p.m., Matt and Natalie Berk were inside the Wawa on Aramingo and Wheatsheaf avenues. Their two dogs, Frankie and Theo, were inside their car that was parked outside the store.
“We ordered sandwiches and we were coming out the door right here,” Matt Berk told NBC10 in November. “Someone said there’s a beagle there and she ran out thinking it was Frankie, our beagle. I ran to the car around the corner here and saw the backdoor was open.”
While the couple’s dog Frankie was still inside their vehicle, Theo, their 2-year-old Boxer/Golden mix, was nowhere to be found.
Get Philly local news, weather forecasts, sports and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC Philadelphia newsletters.
“Ran to check and he just wasn’t there so we just started running around the area, seeing if we can find him, asking if people had seen him,” Matt Berk said. “No one had seen him.”
Surveillance cameras outside the store didn’t show anyone near the couple’s vehicle which they believe was locked.
“He typically wouldn’t get out of the car,” Matt Berk said. “I mean even me getting out of the car, you need to kind of pull him out. So unless he was startled or unless someone came and took him out.”
Critter Corner
Stories about animals.
The couple filed a police report, checked with local animal shelters, created a Facebook page and offered a $1,000 reward for anyone who helped them find Theo.
“No questions asked. There’s a thousand dollar reward right now that we’ll give just to get him back,” Natalie Berk said.
Late Saturday night, Natalie Berk announced on Facebook that Theo was found safe after 18 days.
"He walked in. He jumped on the couch right in his spot," Matt Berk said. "Put his head down. Let out a sigh. It kind of felt like he sighed of like, 'It's over. I'm home now.'"
Matt Berk told NBC10 they're still unsure how Theo went missing in the first place though they suspect he was stolen.
"We have no idea what happened in the week after he went missing," he said. "We have a lot of presumptions that he was taken and either got away on his own or let go."
Berk told NBC10 security guards spotted Theo at a fenced in water treatment facility in the city's Bridgesburg neighborhood. The couple then began working with the Southern NJ Humane Tracking and Trapping recovery group to help with the search. Theo was still tough to track down after that.
"We didn't know how he escaped the water facility but he did," Natalie Berk said. "But it turned out he had been army crawling each night to try to get out to try to get food and he escaped into a nearby backyard."
The couple said Theo would travel between the facility and a home in a nearby neighborhood. Traps and cameras were then set outside the home as the couple watched a live feed for days to see if he'd get caught.
"We're watching and our heart was just racing," Natalie Berk said. "And when he finally went in I couldn't even breathe. We raced over there as quickly as we could."
Police said there's still an open investigation in regards to how Theo went missing in the first place. The couple told NBC10 they may never get the answer. But now that Theo is finally home, they'll at least get a good night's sleep.
