Starry-Eyed

Emilie Talermo left her Australian shepherd Jackson tied up outside a San Francisco grocery while she shopped. When she was done, Jackson had disappeared. Emilie reported the theft to the San Francisco police department. She set up a website to offer a $7,000 reward for Jackson’s return, no questions asked. She even hired a plane to fly over San Francisco and nearby Oakland with a banner advertising the website. Friends and neighbors distributed thousands of flyers with Jackson’s photo and sent emails to veterinarians across the country asking them to keep a lookout. That was the middle of December. Four months passed, and there was still no sign of her stolen dog. Then Emilie got a call from a shelter in Palmdale, 370 miles away. Someone had dropped off a dog with a microchip that led to her number. Emilie wasn’t able to get to Palmdale to pick Jackson up, so the detective who’d been assigned her case volunteered.