A homeless person in Paris has been caring for Lex, who has now been returned to his Antwerp family after disappearing nine months ago
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Dog stolen from Antwerp supermarket last January found with homeless man in Paris
Lisa Bradshaw
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Exactly 300 days after he was stolen from a Lidl in Antwerp, the little dog Lex has been returned to his family. Remarkably, the dog was discovered with a homeless man in Paris and could be identified by local police.
Lex – better known as Lexy – was taken from the Lidl near Harmoniepark on 6 January when the dad of the family left him tied up at the front entrance while he quickly went in to pick something up. When he went missing, the family was heartbroken.
The Antwerp police investigated and even found a suspect, who ended up not being involved. So family member Florentina Munteanu did what we do now – started a Facebook page to alert the masses about the family’s missing pup. Word spread fast, with the page garnering more than 4,000 followers.
The whole police station welcomed us, and in a nanosecond Lexy leaped over to us
And it paid off. A follower of the page thought she spotted the dog with a homeless man in Paris. She snapped a photo and sent it to Munteanu, who immediately recognised her Lexy. She contacted the Paris police, who found the man and checked Lexy’s chip.
“The police officers took Lexy and set up a video call with us,” explains Munteanu. She and her dad knew it was Lexy and headed to Paris.
“The whole police station welcomed us, and in a nanosecond Lexy leaped over to us. He recognised us immediately.”
Apparently the man who had Lexy bought him at a market and had the papers to prove it. They had been forged.
Munteanu is of course quite emotional about the whole thing. “From happiness to sadness to relief,” she told VRT. “It’s just so fantastic. I call it a miracle. And bringing him home was also wonderful. He immediately recognised everything and everyone – as if he had never been gone. I still can’t quite believe how well this whole story had ended.”
As for the Facebook page, it has already served to find other lost dogs and will stay live for the time being.