Mario Bessette was so distraught over the apparent theft of his dog Suzie late Thursday night, he only got about an hour of sleep. Less than 24 hours later, he was overjoyed at Suzie's return.
"I'm so grateful for the social media," Bessette told CTV News Friday evening. "I'm so grateful for BC SPCA, and all of the people who tweet and retweet and sent me messages, and stuff like this. I'm so grateful. There are no words."
Bessette told CTV News he went inside the McDonald's on Main Street near Terminal Avenue Thursday around 10:15 p.m. to get himself an ice cream cone and a cup of ice cream for Suzie.
"When I turned around, my dog was gone," Bessette said. "I went outside because I thought she got scared by a whistle or something and she ran home."
He said it soon became apparent that Suzie hadn't run off. He asked the security guard in the McDonald's for help, and was able to review the surveillance video.
The footage shows a woman untying Suzie's leash before jogging away from the front doors of the building.
It's apparent in the video that Suzie doesn't want to go with the woman, Bessette said, but because she's wearing her harness, it's harder for her to resist a tug on her leash.
On a Facebook page with the title "Find Suzie," Besette asked anyone who recognized the woman in the video to call the Vancouver Police Department and cite file number VA19-130632.
After lots of coverage on social media, former CTV News Vancouver digital content producer Darcy Matheson tweeted that she had found Suzie outside her home. The dog was walking with the woman from the video, Matheson said.
