The call came in at 6:44 p.m. on Jan. 10.
A young man claimed he had Harmony, the deaf American bulldog puppy that was stolen from a car at Manhattan Village just two days after Christmas.
The man said his mother had found Harmony on 115th Street and Hawthorne Boulevard, and that he had her at his Lennox home on 104th Street and Prairie Avenue.
“I’ll be there in 20 minutes,” responded Erin Lovejoy, founder of the Lovejoy Foundation, an animal rescue foundation. She hopped in the car with Patrick Thomasson, Harmony’s adopted father, and headed to Lennox.
“The minute I saw her, I knew it was her,” Lovejoy said.
For two weeks, Lovejoy and the Thomasson family had sought the community’s help in finding the four-month-old puppy. That December morning, along with taking Harmony, a thief stole an iPad, cash and a gift card from the car. The family’s other rescue dog, Bella, was also in the car at the time, but was not stolen.
The Thomasson family had Harmony for less than a week before she was stolen – Harmony was a surprise Christmas gift to Patrick from his wife.
Harmony’s disappearance prompted an outpouring of community support from the South Bay and beyond. Strangers donated money – the Lovejoy Foundation was ultimately able to offer a $4,000 reward for anyone who could provide information about Harmony’s whereabouts. Community members, including a Torrance Girl Scout troop, canvassed the town, posting about 1,200 missing dog flyers around the South Bay.
The efforts presented a handful of dead leads – a couple callers claimed to have Harmony and asked for the reward, but weren’t able to produce a picture of her.
When Harmony was finally found, Lovejoy and the Thomassons were overjoyed. “It was surreal,” Lovejoy said. “This was 24/7, eating, drinking, sleeping, everything was about getting this dog back.”
Upon picking Harmony up, Lovejoy and Thomasson noticed burn marks and cuts all over her body and on the top of her head. They later learned that Harmony had been used as “bait” in a dog-fighting ring. Bait dogs are used to train dogs for fighting, and are often severely injured or even killed in the process. The different degrees of healing of Harmony’s injuries suggested that she was involved in multiple fights over a period of time, Lovejoy said.
“I made a mistake to look up what they do to bait dogs,” said Sheyla Thomasson, Harmony’s adopted mother. “We’re very lucky she’s in one piece, that she’s alive. It could’ve been a lot worse.”
Patrick and Sheyla Thomasson have four sons; the oldest is 12. “My kids were so happy,” Sheyla said, adding that her three-year-old cried every night for a week while Harmony was missing.
Harmony’s deafness was a blessing in a lot of ways, Lovejoy said, adding that she was not able to hear growls from other dogs that fought her. “That’s what saved her,” Lovejoy said.
When she was first reunited with the family, however, Harmony was showing aggressive behavior toward the family’s other dog, Bella. “She definitely was in shock,” Lovejoy said, adding that she took Harmony to her home for two days and slowly reintegrated her into the household. Now, “she’s doing amazing,” Lovejoy said.
“I didn’t realize how empty it felt,” Sheyla said, of morale in the household in Harmony’s absence. “We were really sad, really depressed, really out of it. I didn’t realize how bad it was until we found her.”
The police are investigating Harmony’s theft. Police ask that those with information call Manhattan Beach Detective Claudia McShane at 310-802-5130.
