John Jenkins doesn't care if he gets back his pickup truck that was stolen Monday from the Walmart parking lot on Hanes Mill Road. All he wants — no questions asked — is his dog, Boo'kie, who was inside the truck.
Boo'kie is a brown Chihuahua, 7 years old, with one deformed paw. The paw is a daily reminder of a winter storm that killed the rest of Boo'kie's litter when he was a puppy.
"The power went out in the winter, and all of them froze to death but him," Jenkins said. "He got frostbit."
About 9:30 a.m. Monday, Jenkins went to Walmart at 320 Hanes Mill Road to pick up a prescription. Boo'kie, too, is on medication, for dry skin that itches so badly that Boo'kie sometimes chews and scratches "so much, he eats his hide off," Jenkins said.
Boo'kie was asleep in the back seat of Jenkins' blue king-cab GMC Sierra, so Jenkins, according to the police report, left the keys in the ignition and went into the store.
He was gone no more than 15 minutes, he guesses.
"And I come back out, and my truck was gone," he said.
Jenkins panicked. Boo'kie needs medicine, and Jenkins worried what would happen to the dog without it. Besides, Boo'kie had been his companion for the past seven years.
He ran back inside the Walmart, and someone called the police. A Walmart surveillance camera picked up a photo of the person stealing the truck: Police believe the person was a white male wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt.
Jenkins, who lives in Walkertown, called some friends, and about 15 of them looked for Boo'kie all day Monday and into Monday night. On Tuesday, Jenkins went back to Hanes Mill Road and hung up posters with Boo'kie's photograph.
He's offering a $500 reward for the dog's safe return, no questions asked.
"Keep the truck if you have to," said his girlfriend, Melissa Riddle. "We just want the dog."
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