Collared! : Dognap Suspect Arrested, Terrier Rescued

WOODLAND HILLS —  It was a brazen crime, carried out in broad daylight by a confident crook who nonchalantly told Henri Kemp that he would never see his beloved Maude again unless he followed instructions.

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It was a textbook dognaping case and the life of Maude, a 7-year-old Boston terrier, seemed to hang in the balance.

It all began Tuesday when Kemp’s wife, Sandy, was listening to messages left on the family answering machine. Among them was one from a stranger saying Maude had been stolen and would be returned only if a ransom of $500 was paid.

Maude, the family’s much-loved pet, had been snatched from the fenced yard of the couple’s Woodland Hills home.

Alarmed, Kemp rushed home from his North Hollywood job and contacted police, who advised him to agree to the extortion demand and to meet with the dognaper in a public place. The thief called again, around 9 p.m., and they arranged a clandestine meeting in a parking lot at a Ralphs grocery store on Ventura Boulevard in Woodland Hills the following morning.

The deal: $500 and Maude comes home in one piece--or else.

On the phone, however, Kemp tried to strike a better deal.

“I offered him $200 and he said he would shoot her, get rid of her or keep her for his own child,” Kemp said. They finally settled on $450.

“He was so cocksure of himself,” Kemp recalled. “The confidence he had, like he was in total control of the situation. . . . He told me that he knew it was a valuable dog.”

Unknown to the suspect, a trap was being laid even as they spoke. Police would stake out Ralphs and move in when Kemp gave them a signal--scratching the back of his neck.

Police said Kemp met with Damani Grey, a 19-year-old Northridge man who was arrested in the case, at 9 a.m. Wednesday. Out of sight but nearby to spring the trap were 15 West Valley uniformed officers and detectives, and just in case--a helicopter.

“When I scratched the back of my neck, it meant I’d seen the dog and he’d asked me for the money,” Kemp said.

Standing in front of the store, Kemp said he was “petrified” as he waited to meet the dognaper. The man, who apparently had been waiting for Kemp, beckoned him to come over to his car to close the deal.

When Kemp walked up to the car, he saw Maude sitting on the man’s lap.

“Is this your dog?” he quoted the man as saying.

Watching from afar, Detective Larry Kagele said police moved when they saw Kemp “pull out his wallet and start counting money.”

After Grey was taken into custody, Maude bounded out of the car and into Kemp’s arms. Grey was booked on suspicion of extortion and is being held in lieu of $25,000 bail, Kagele said.

Kemp said he is puzzled why Maude was singled out, especially since he had never before met Grey. He speculated that Grey got his home phone number from Maude’s dog tag.

Nevertheless, he’s pleased to have the dog, which he raised from a pup, back home. Maude was appreciative, too, giving free licks to a local newscaster and to the men who saved her life.

“She is just thrilled and she likes all the attention, but I hope she doesn’t get it in her head to do this too often,” Kemp said.

In the future, Maude will still have the run of the yard, just like she always had, but Kemp said he will now reluctantly bolt and lock the fence that surrounds the yard of their Laramie Avenue home.