Security footage appears to show the worker stop and take Melissa Cortez's 10-month-old pug.
A puppy was returned to its owner after security cameras showed a cable company employee allegedly snatching it.
Melissa Cortez was frantic when she couldn't find her 10-month-old pug, Andrew. She worried he somehow got loose from her home in Riverside, California.
Then she saw the shocking surveillance footage from a neighbor's home that showed Andrew had been abducted, allegedly by a Spectrum cable technician, who was seen taking the dog and putting it in a company van.
“He opens [the gate] oh so cautiously and just enough that he can pull Andrew out,” Cortez told Inside Edition. "Seeing that it was an employee usually people trust into their homes is infuriating."
She said she called the cable company but got the run-around so she tweeted the footage with this message: “Spectrum, one of your drivers took my dog.”
That got ignited a firestorm. Less than 24 hours later, Spectrum security had returned Andrew to her.
"It is extremely heartbreaking to see his little self just go up to the gate not knowing what was going to happen," she said of the dog's theft.
Now, she's just happy to have him home. “I was beyond ecstatic to get him. So thankful,” she said.
Spectrum told Inside Edition the employee has been "terminated."
Cortez said she has filed a police report and wants the technician who took her dog to face criminal charges.
"What he did was commit a crime and I expect him to be punished under those terms," she said.
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