A ‘crazy story’ about a missing dog, a bogus seller and the power of Coast community
Something was not right about the woman trying to sell a tiny dog for $75 in a Dollar General parking lot in Gulfport.
So, Brittany Evans got her boyfriend to snap photos of her holding the dog and, as they were pulling out of the parking lot, she posted the photo on Facebook, writing: “Is anyone missing this dog? I had a random lady come up to me at Dollar General and ask if I want to buy it. She wasn’t sure of the age or even gender so it all sounds fishy to me.”
Evans wrote down the woman’s license plate number, noted the description of her vehicle, and asked for a name and telephone number in case, Evans told the lady, her cousin wanted to buy the dog.
Less than a minute later, someone commented with the name of the dog’s owner: Crystal Wilson.
Wilson was bereft before she saw the post. Her beloved dog, Hannah Banana Wilson, had been missing for six days. Weighing only 4-5 pounds, the dog had managed to slip out of the house with Wilson’s visiting nieces and nephews.
Hannah wiggled through an impossibly small hole that Hurricane Zeta had punched in the fence weeks earlier.
Wilson realized her dog was gone only when she stopped work to take Hannah outside and found her empty bed.
Missing dog prompts Facebook hunt
Hannah, a Shih Tzu-Pomeranian mix, had been a Christmas present from Wilson’s wife five years earlier, a three-month-old white ball of fur with black ears and markings around her face that faded with age.
Hannah is a cuddler and a momma’s girl. “She does not leave my sight,” Crystal said. “And, yes, she sleeps in bed with me.”
Wilson posted pictures of her missing dog on her Facebook page, a neighborhood page and a page for lost pets. She visited the Humane Society of South Mississippi. No Hannah.
She hung 65 fliers in the Gulfport area where she lives.
She received plenty of calls and notices, but none of the dogs pictured was Hannah.
She thought maybe someone without a social media account had found Hannah. Or someone knew Hannah was missing but wanted to keep her. Or, worst of all, a hawk might have grabbed her small dog.
Because of the social media exposure and fliers, people were looking all over for Hannah, including neighbors who scoured the area on foot.
And then, on Sunday, Wilson’s phone started blowing up with notifications while she was in Walmart. People were alerting her to Brittany Evans’ post, which has now been shared more than 900 times.
The two women talked. Evans gave her the name and telephone number of the dog seller. Wilson called to claim Hannah. The woman hung up on her.
The woman wouldn’t answer subsequent calls or give her location when Wilson texted. The woman said she saw the dog outside and didn’t want to leave “him.” Wilson pleaded through text messages with the woman to meet her, but got no response.
A friend rescues missing dog
Wilson called the police. Two extremely kind and diligent Gulfport officers showed up at her house, she said. One of them called the woman pretending she wanted to buy the dog, then eventually identified herself as a police officer.
Wilson was listening to the call. None of them could believe what happened next.
Wilson’s friend since high school, Elizabeth Garriga-Osburn, was headed to the hospital to see her father. She was in a drive-thru line, waiting for a drink to take her father, when she saw Crystal’s post describing the dog seller’s vehicle and how a woman had been trying to sell Hannah in a parking lot off Pass Road.
“God just puts me in the right place at the right time,” said Garriga-Osburn, an animal rescuer. “Something told me, drive down Pass Road.” Sure enough, she spotted the woman’s truck, turned around and followed it.
The woman pulled into a fast-food restaurant, where Garriga-Osburn blocked in the truck and approached the woman.
A dog was sitting in a little boy’s lap in the front seat. Another young child also was in the truck.
“When I said, ‘Hannah,’ she started wagging her tail,” Garriga-Osburn said. “I just stuck my hands out and said, ‘That’s Hannah. I’ll take her.’ “
Still listening, the police officers asked Wilson if she wanted Garriga-Osburn to take Hannah. Yes, she did.
The woman handed over the dog. Garriga-Osburn offered her a reward, which the woman took.
“I felt like because she handed the dog over without confrontation — she could have done the complete opposite,” Garriga-Osburn said. “I felt like it would be a life lesson for her children to say, ‘You are being rewarded for doing the right thing.’ “
Dog, owner reunited
Garriga-Osburn met Wilson in a convenience store parking lot with Hannah.
“I just started crying,” Wilson said. “It was just a black hole and all I could see was Hannah.”
Hannah was shaking on the way home. But once there, reunited with the family, including three large dogs, she was her old self again. Wilson gave her Hannah Banana a bath and good grooming.
Her dog was back home less than two hours after Brittany Evans’ Facebook post. Evans said her two dogs went missing about four years ago. She still doesn’t know what happened to them.
“I felt like if I could stop somebody else from wondering for the rest of their life what happened to that dog, that I would do what I could to help,” Evans said.
People tell Wilson that she should file charges against the woman who was trying to sell Hannah. But she’s not so sure.
The woman didn’t steal Hannah. On the other hand, she was still trying to sell the dog even after finding out her owner very much wanted Hannah back.
Maybe the woman needed money to buy her children Christmas presents, Wilson said.
“It’s a crazy, crazy story,” Wilson said. “I can tell you that.”
She’s just glad Hannah is home and she still can’t believe all the people who were invested in finding her dog.
“People genuinely care if you give them the opportunity to be there and care,” she said.
This story was originally published December 1, 2020 at 5:50 AM.
