A dog stolen from a shopping cart in a mall parking lot has been returned to her owner unharmed.

"Coco," a 4-year-old toy poodle, was stolen on Saturday from the parking lot at Burnaby's Lougheed Mall.

The cream-coloured dog was in her carrier, which was snatched from a shopping cart by a person in a silver four-door Honda Civic. The driver of the Civic then sped off in the direction of the Lougheed SkyTrain station.

On Tuesday, owner Christina An told CTV News that RCMP had helped her find the dog in Langley, at around 11 a.m.

"Coco is now safe and taking a rest," An wrote in an email, adding that she was thankful for everyone who helped bring the little dog home.

"It wouldn't happen without everyone's support."

Coco has a limp, which she needs surgery to correct.

At the time, An said she believed the pup's abduction was a purse-snatching gone wrong: the thieves thought they were taking a designer handbag, not a dog carrier.

"They thought it was my purse," she said Monday. "I yelled out, 'It's my dog, help me out!' They just ignored me and drove away."

An said she was heartbroken by the incident, and that the little dog was like her sister. She offered a $2,000 reward for whoever brought her dog home.

"I pray and pray every single day. Please return my dog," she said.

An and police have not provided more details on where the dog was found, or in what condition.

The male driver who took the carrier from An's cart has been described as a white man in his 20s with blond hair. There was a woman in the passenger's seat of the vehicle at the time, police said.

Anyone with more information is asked to contact police at 604-294-7922.

The theft is not the first time a dog has been grabbed in plain view. A 10-month-old French bulldog was stolen from a Vancouver tattoo shop in 2014, when a woman asked to hold it then ran to a waiting car.

And a Vancouver pet store owner said her customers have had their dogs stolen in a matter of seconds.

"People leave their dog unattended, maybe just out front of a store for a few minutes," Barking Babies owner Nancy Jelenic said.

"They come back out and their dog is missing."

Jelenic said sometimes owners put out rewards and "lo and behold" someone claims to have found the dog.

But she also recommended keeping the top of a carrier unzipped, if it looks like a designer bag. If the dog pokes its head out of the top, potential thieves will realize it's a carrier and not a purse.

With a report from CTV Vancouver's Jonathan Glasgow