A Canadian man who stole a miniature poodle from a woman’s home, hopped the border and fled to Riverton, Wyoming, got caught by local authorities with methamphetamine, according to case documents and interviews.
Paul Sheehan, 50, pleaded not guilty Monday in Lander Circuit Court on two citations, one for misdemeanor meth possession and one for misdemeanor theft.
He stole a woman’s dog last September and hopped the border into the United States, the woman told Cowboy State Daily.
Teddy was just 4 months old when he was taken from his home, Alaina Tripp of Ottawa, Ontario, told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday.
Tripp’s service dog died last year despite her efforts to save him, so she brought Teddy home with hopes of training him as a new service dog to ease her anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, she said.
Tripp said she can’t have children and regarded her dog as a child.
Tripp said she lives in a subsidized housing area across from a park, which is in turn across from a liquor store. She has a job, but not all residents of the subsidized housing do, she said.
“There are a lot of people who just drink or use drugs,” said Tripp. “There are a lot of drug and alcohol problems (in the park).”
Sheehan, whom she knew as “a guy who had been hanging around,” would approach her while she was trying to leave for work and volunteer to look after Teddy, she recalled.
She always told him no.
When she’d had the pup for a month, she came home from work in the middle of the day to find that Sheehan and another man had knocked in her air conditioner, picked her lock and broken into her home, she said.
“And they stole Teddy,” said Tripp.
When Tripp heard from Riverton Police Department Officer Don Nethicumara on Saturday that her dog had been found in the small Wyoming town, she was elated. Nethicumara arranged for the poodle to shelter at the Paws for Life animal shelter, where he remained as of Wednesday, Tripp said.
“I’m so grateful to all of you in Riverton, Wyoming,” said Tripp.
Now Tripp and others are trying to coordinate the logistics and costs of transporting a lost poodle via air across international boundaries. Her friend Pamela Memmott organized a GoFundMe page to collect donations.
But First, A Meth Straw
Nethicumara was patrolling Riverton’s Main Street four minutes before midnight July 24 when he saw a vehicle run a red light, according to an RPD report of the incident released Wednesday to Cowboy State Daily.
As Nethicumara spoke with the driver, Sheehan, and Sheehan’s female passenger, their stories changed. At first they said they knew each other, then they indicated they didn’t, the report says.
Nethicumara noticed the white poodle-mix dog on Sheehan’s lap. Then he learned that Sheehan had a warrant out of Canada that wasn’t extraditable on claims he’d stolen a puppy named Teddy. Sheehan said he’d been in Riverton about two weeks, the report says.
The officer asked if he could search Sheehan’s car and Sheehan agreed, reportedly. That was when Nethicumara found a brown bag with a cut straw containing a crystal-like substance that registered as positive for methamphetamine in a field test, says the document.
But Nethicumara did not arrest Sheehan at that time due to a lack of officers on duty. He cited him instead for meth possession.
Be Free, Puppy
Nethicumara later seized the dog, then let him run around in the RPD station.
“It seemed like Teddy had been cooped up in the car for so long,” Nethicumara told Cowboy State Daily in a Wednesday interview. “He was running wild … playing fetch by himself.”
The officer laughed while describing it — the dog would send a ball across the hallway by himself, chase after it and fetch it.
Teddy’s fur was matted, but besides that, the officer didn’t see any other signs of abuse.
Not Allowing This
Sheehan was still free in Wyoming.
Nethicumara spoke with the Fremont County Attorney’s Office, which asked him to track Sheehan down so the office could prosecute him, he said.
“They’re not allowing this behavior,” Nethicumara added.
He learned Sheehan was in Cody, Wyoming, and convinced him to come back to Riverton. As for Sheehan, he had a one-track mind.
“He seemed really fixated on Teddy for some reason,” said Nethicumara. The officer interviewed Sheehan, then arrested him.
Sheehan remained in the Fremont County Detention Center as of Wednesday, Nethicumara said.
Jonathan Gerard, Fremont County Public Defender supervisor, declined Wednesday to comment on Sheehan’s behalf, citing the early phase of the man’s case.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
