Lady Gaga’s dogs are returned safely

Lady Gaga’s two French bulldogs were recovered unharmed Friday in Los Angeles, the police said, two days after thieves stole the dogs and shot a man who was walking them.

The man was shot Wednesday night after two people got out of a white car and demanded that he “turn over the dogs at gunpoint,” the Los Angeles Police Department said in a Twitter thread. After a struggle, they made off with two of the three dogs he had been walking.

The police said it appeared a semi-automatic handgun had been used to shoot the dog walker, later identified by Lady Gaga as Ryan Fischer. He was taken to a hospital Wednesday and was in serious but stable condition Friday afternoon.

Someone took the dogs to a Los Angeles police station at about 6 p.m. Friday, and a representative of Lady Gaga’s picked them up, said Officer Mike Lopez, a police spokesman. “The dogs are returned safely,” he said.

He declined to provide further details, saying the investigation was continuing.

No arrests had been made as of Thursday.

A report by The Associated Press on Friday quoted Capt. Jonathan Tippett of the Los Angeles Police Department as saying that the woman who took the dogs to the police station appeared to be “uninvolved and unassociated” with the attack.

A dog looks out of a car window near the site where Lady Gaga's dog walker was shot and two of the animals were stolen in Los Angeles, California, US, Feb 25, 2021. REUTERS

Earlier Friday, Lady Gaga wrote on Instagram that she was offering a $500,000 reward for the safe return of the dogs, Koji and Gustav. “My heart is sick and I am praying my family will be whole again with an act of kindness,” she wrote.

She also thanked Fischer, who is in his 30s and lives in the neighbourhood where he was shot.

“I continue to love you Ryan Fischer, you risked your life to fight for our family,” she said in the post. “You’re forever a hero.”

Fischer was so devoted to Koji and Gustav that he would “take a bullet” for them, one of his friends, Steven Lazaroff, told a CBS television reporter after the shooting.

“He eats, sleeps and breathes those dogs,” he said.

© 2021 New York Times News Service