MOLALLA, Ore. (KOIN) — It was hot Monday afternoon when Shellie Anderson parked her Jeep in the lot at the Safeway in Molalla. She left her dog in the car while she went inside the store. She said she parked in the shade, cracked the windows and left the sunroof open.
But someone broke her window to rescue the dog.
“He was probably devastated when this guy blasted my window,” Anderson told KOIN 6 News. “My dog was probably devastated.”
As she was walking out of the store she heard a page about a Jeep Cherokee. She could hear her car alarm and saw “this guy is standing out there with a bloody arm.”
She went outside and “he starts screaming at me your dog was in this car blah, blah blah and I was, like, ‘Are you kidding me? My dog has only been in the car 10 maybe 15 minutes, max. You broke my window open?'”
Molalla police responded to the incident. Chief Rod Lucich told KOIN 6 News the man waited at the car for about 5 minutes before breaking the window because Anderson’s dog was panting heavily.
Lucich said the man did not realize the sunroof was open.
“Technically,” Anderson said, her dog “can get out up on the sunroof, put his head out, do whatever he needs to do.”
Officials with the Clackamas County Dog Services said if you’re worried about a dog left in a car on a hot day to always call police to handle the situation.
There is nothing in the county ordinance that says a citizen can or can’t break a window to get a pet in danger. There is an ordinance the specifically allows police to do it.
In this case, police said it does not appear the dog was near death. And Anderson said the man had no right to break her window.
“I want him to pay for my window, at least,” she said. “Or I want him to be prosecuted.”
Molalla police said the case remains under investigation. Chief Lucich said Anderson’s car was parked illegally in the fire lane in the partial shade, but she was not cited for the parking violation.
