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SOUTH JORDAN — A purebred French bulldog breeder is concerned about the condition of her two dogs and 10 puppies after someone got into her house and stole them.
Dog owners know the feeling when you come home after a tough day and their dog melts it all away at the door.
“It just brightens your whole day,” said Rene Kump with a laugh. “I love my dogs.”
Kump loves those moments.
She admitted she has rushed home from work before just to see her dogs.
“Especially when you don’t have a spouse or your kids are older,” she said. “It’s just nice to have somebody show you that love and attention.”
So when her dogs weren’t home to greet her when she came home from work Tuesday, it was heartbreaking.
“All night long, I just cried. I was devastated,” she said.
Sometime Tuesday, someone got into her South Jordan home and stole her two grown female dogs and 10 puppies.
Five of those puppies were about 3 weeks old, the other five about 1 week old.
“They don’t even have their eyes open yet,” said Kump.
Kump is a purebred French bulldog breeder and owns the company SoJo Frenchies.
She relies on the money from those puppies to supplement her income working in a school cafeteria.
The person who stole the dogs, according to Kump, stole the equivalent of about $30,000.
“It’s my whole year income right there, besides my lunch lady money,” said Kump.
The person she thinks stole the dogs is someone who was close to her family at one time and had a key to her house.
“There was no break-in,” she said. “He knew the dogs were here, he knew where they were and he knew how much they were worth.”
Yes, there is a monetary value, but having her dogs greet her at the door is priceless.
Detectives with the South Jordan Police Department are working on the case and looking for any neighbors who might have home surveillance video.
SJPD Lt. Matt Pennington said detectives spoke to the man Kump believes stole her dogs, though he denied having any involvement in it.
The investigation is ongoing.
“Somebody out there has got to know,” said Kump. “You can’t replace them. Especially my two girls. I miss them so much.”
