Dog Found, Reunited With Owner After Stolen in Carjacking

After a dog was stolen during a carjacking in San Bernardino, the owner was reunited with the pooch Tuesday. 

Lola the pup was in the car with 80-year-old Don Mittica.

But what Mittica didn't realize is that they weren't the only ones in the vehicle; An armed man was hiding in his back seat.

"When he wrapped that arm around my neck, had the knife and said, 'I am going to kill you,'" Mittica said.

The carjacker took off with the car with Lola in the backseat.  

NewsChopper4 was overhead when police ended a chase with the carjacker. But at the end of the pursuit Monday, Lola was nowhere to be found.

"That three pound tiny 'rat dog,' I call her, keeps him company. He’s always with the dog," Mary Ann Schmidt, Mittica's daughter, said.

Lola isn't just an ordinary pooch. She was given to Mittica two months before his wife of 42 years died, just after New Year’s Day.

"We talked to the towing people asking, 'Was there a dog?'" Schmidt said. "No one knew anything about the dog."

Tuesday night, Lola’s picture appeared on PetHarbor.com, an adoption site.

The suspected carjacker, before engaging in a pursuit, picked up three passengers on the way to Orange County, and dropped Lola off along the way.

Lola was returned to Mittica after a scary 24 hours. 

"Between my wife and the dog I haven’t broken down yet," Mittica said. "You know what it is? When a man cries he can’t stop."