Wallace Eduardo ransomed for $150

For more than a month, Rachael Chitty grieved the loss of her dog, Wallace Eduardo.

Then a man claiming to be a good Samaritan emerged with an implausible story and a demand for a reward.

Monday there was a bizarre but ultimately happy ending to what Chitty said was a case of dognapping. The man, who called himself only Preston, wavered between hostility and cordiality, logic and nonsense as he worked to ensure he got cash in exchange for Wallace.

"I just wanted to play along so I could get my dog back," said Chitty, who later learned she may have been in real danger negotiating with the man.

Wallace, a friendly 1 1/2-year-old Boston terrier who gets more MySpace messages than his college student owner, disappeared the morning of Halloween. Chitty, 22, had let him out into the fenced front yard of her rented house near Memorial Park, and when she returned a short while later the gate that was always closed was open and Wallace was gone.

"I was just terrified not knowing if he had got run over or if someone decided to keep him as their own," Chitty said.

She and her boyfriend, 23-year-old Peter Droogsma, canvassed the neighborhood with fliers. They knocked on doors and heard several stories of dogs being stolen.

Monday morning, just as Chitty was beginning the search for a replacement for Wallace, she got the call from Preston.

"Immediately he was really pushy and starting saying he saved my dog's life," Chitty said. "He said that Wallace had been run over by a car and Wallace had torn up a $3,000 sofa. He was being really ridiculous."

He was cussing at her and demanding a reward. Confused, she agreed to his $150 price and called Droogsma, who drove her to the meeting place at Prospect Street and West Colorado Avenue. Droogsma called police on the way, who advised him not to meet with the man without a police escort.

Fearful that police would scare the man off, the couple went anyway but planned to write the man a check and put a stop payment on it when Wallace was back in Chitty's arms.

But Preston demanded that Droogsma go get cash.

"It is OK, sir," Chitty said Preston told Droogsma. "I am a Christian. I have a wife and a newborn at home."

The man's story kept changing, the couple said. He first said Wallace wasn't wearing his collar with tags when he found him but later asked Chitty where Overland Drive is, which was her old address listed on Wallace's tag. He first said he lived out of town but then said he lived in Palmer Lake.

"I knew he was lying," Chitty said.

Droogsma, just wanting to get his girlfriend's dog back, left Chitty with Preston in a residential area near The Gazette and St. Francis Hospital to get the cash.

He called police again on the way, and they ran the license plate on the Dodge Ram with the word "wolf" printed on the back window. Police told him the plate was connected to a wanted man and that he shouldn't go back.

Police wouldn't say what he was wanted for.

Fearing for Chitty, he went back, handed Preston the cash and watched the man take off north on Prospect Street.

Police didn't find the man, whom Droogsma described as a 6-foot-2 inch black man with tattoos on his forearms, said officer Lawrence Eckenroth.

Chitty posted a warning on Craigslist, telling other dog owners, "If your dog is lost, it is very possible it has been stolen. Be sure that if you think this could be the case, to meet in a public place and always call the police."

Wallace shows no sign of injury, refuting Preston's claim he had been hit by a car, or malnutrition, though Chitty has noticed her dog doesn't follow her around as much as he did before his disappearance.