Two 16-year-old girls were busted for snatching a dachshund named Milkshake from a Bronx apartment last month — but the beloved emotional support service dog remains missing, authorities said Tuesday.
The teens, whose names were not released because they are minors, were nabbed Monday and charged with third-degree grand larceny and second-degree harassment in the brazen May 4 dognapping, cops said.
Owner Luz Montanez, 34, previously told The Post that her “baby” Milkshake, a 10-year-old female dachshund, was scooped up by the heartless thieves while she was distracted with her young son’s birthday party.
Video released by the NYPD last week shows the pint-size pooch following the two dognappers along the hallway, up and down a small flight of stairs and toward the door of the building on Tiffany Street near Westchester Avenue in Longwood.
Milkshake had not been returned by Tuesday and her whereabouts were not known, police said.
Montanez, who couldn’t immediately be reached Tuesday, had said the suspects “look familiar,” based on the surveillance video, but she did not know them personally.
She was hosting a Bluey-themed birthday party inside the apartment for her kindergartner son, and let the kids into the hallway to play, with Milkshake later joining them, Montanez said.
But by around 7:50 p.m., as Montanez served cake to the guests, she realized the brown pooch was gone.
Milkshake was only 3 weeks old when Montanez received her as a birthday present from her dad – and even bottle-fed the pup and kept her baby teeth in a jar.
“Milkshake is legit the first child. I call her my favorite,” the distraught owner said. “I mean, both of my kids are my favorite… I tell her, ‘You’re my favorite dog. And I tell my [son], ‘You’re my favorite human.’ These are both my kids!
“This is my baby. This is my soulmate,” Montanez added of her beloved pet. “This is my heart, my heartbeat. She’s been through everything with me.”
Montanez said last week she hopes someone with good intentions will return her dog.
“People who are dog people don’t do things like what they’ve done,” she said of the thieves. “It’s mean, and nobody does that. I know your intentions for the dog are not pure.”
“I need someone to hear me because she needs to come home,” Montanez said in a desperate plea. “She needs to come home already.”
