Retired police officer Mike Jasper was walking through his local park with his spaniel cross, Ted, one morning last month when two men wearing facemasks approached him and started to ask questions about his beloved four-year-old pet.
Feeling uncomfortable, 66-year-old Mike started to walk away, only to find himself pushed to the ground while one of the men forced the lead from his hand and made off with Ted.
Mike has not seen him since.
The theft out of the blue, in broad daylight, and in a South London park crowded with walkers and joggers has left him devastated.
‘He is still in shock,’ his daughter Lucinda Jasper, 28, told the Mail.