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NH Family Finds Lost Dog Being Walked By Stranger

PORTSMOUTH (CBS) - Mickey, an eight-year-old Boston terrier, had been missing since February when one of Natasha Curtis's children let him outside their Portsmouth, New Hampshire home and he never came back.

"The boys started making flyers," said Curtis. "We put them up all around."

The family was devastated.

"It's a family member, we were very upset," said Curtis.

They had pretty much given up and even got a new dog.

"We had just got a new puppy two weeks ago because our family is not complete without a dog," said Curtis.

But then a twist.

Natasha says she was in the drive-thru of a Dunkin' Donuts and saw what looked like her dog being walked by a man along some train tracks.

"Hopped out of the car and yelled 'Mickey,'" said Curtis. "He was pulling and pulling that guy to come toward me."

After Natasha confronted the man, she called 911 while the man then went home to get his wife. When the woman showed up, Natasha says it started to get ugly.

"She ripped him out of my hands, grabbed his fur," said Curtis. "I just remember seeing clumps of fur in her hand...it was horrible."

Portsmouth Police would arrest the woman, Alice Giordano, after a microchip proved it was Mickey.

Investigators told WBZ-TV Giordano then confessed she had seen the dog, taken it, and never made an effort to return it to the rightful owners.

"Alice made no attempts to contact the police about Mickey," said Sgt. Kuffer Kaltenborn in an email to WBZ-TV. "We have no information that she ever tried to locate the owner, nor did she make any attempt to bring Mickey to a shelter or veterinarian to facilitate locating his owner."

She has been charged with a misdemeanor of receiving stolen property.

Nobody answered the door at her home today and she did not return a call to what is believed to be her phone number.

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