Bulldog Found at Eastpoint Mall With 'Stolen from Hawthorne' Sign

Michael Sills spent six frantic hours on Friday wondering what happened to Charlie, his 4-month-old blue Old English Bulldog.

What he didn't expect was to find the dog at a nearby mall with a sign announcing the animal had been stolen.

Around 12:30 p.m., Charlie was taken from the backyard of Sills’ Hawthorne home on the 2100 block of Redthorn Road.

“I heard another one of my dogs barking, but didn’t think anything of it until an hour later when I went outside and realized Charlie was gone,” Sills said.

The 36-year-old spoke with police and all of his neighbors. He even called various media outlets seeking help in the search.

According to Baltimore County police reports, a neighbor told officers he was sitting on his back porch when he saw two males walk down the alley with Sills’ dog. The neighbor told police the suspects got into a dark-colored, older model SUV, located at the corner of Firethorn Road and the alley.

Around 7 p.m., police called Sills and said they found Charlie tied to a pole at , with a sign that read “Stolen from Hawthorne.”

“I had an idea who stole Charlie from me and I think once word got out that we knew who it was, my dog miraculously turned up,” Sills said. “Right now, I’m just glad to have him back and I want to move on because I don’t want to get my neighbor any more involved in this.”

Sills, who breeds bulldogs through a side businesses, Outlaw Bulldogs, said he learned a valuable lesson from this experience.

“Charlie just can’t be outside alone in public,” he said. “It’s like parking a Lamborghini in a dark alley. You’re just asking for it to be stolen.”