By Jennifer H. Cunningham, Daily News
Monday, September 12th 2011, 3:51 PM
Westie terrior Winston was happily reunited with his owners Kumiko Masaoka and Michael Reinhardt.
A Brooklyn doctor's search for his missing pooch ended with elation Sunday - and some biting criticism of a cop who found the dog and may have pawned it off on strangers.
"It was so awesome," Michael Reinhardt recalled of the moment when a Brownsville family returned little Winston to him on the 10th anniversary of 9-11.
"We've been so stressed out. It was a nice thing to happen on such a solemn day."
Reinhardt, 30, a psychiatry resident at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, had been searching for Winston since the West Highland Terrier got spooked and bolted through Brooklyn's Grand Army Plaza early last month.
He and his girlfriend papered the area with fliers. Their shoe-leather search eventually led them to a beat cop from the 77th Precinct in Crown Heights, who told them he had found Winston and given him over to three women riding in a black sedan with Virginia plates.
The officer said the women had approached him and said they owned the pooch, Reinhardt said.
But the family who came forward and returned the dog to Reinhardt after seeing one of his fliers told a far different tale.
"They described the officer approaching them with the dog and asking if they wanted a free dog," Reinhardt told the Daily News. "The cop was walking around trying to give Winston away."
Reinhardt said the family who returned Winston gave a physical description of the cop that matched the officer he had initially spoken with. They were also able to describe a makeshift leash the cop told Reinhardt he had attached to Winston's red collar.
Police sources told The News before Winston's safe return that officers were reviewing surveillance footage in an attempt to find the alleged doggy-nappers.
Reinhardt said that since Winston's return he has yet to speak with the police liaisons whom he had earlier met at City Councilwoman Letitia James' office; he said the liaisons had assured him cops were working the case.
Now he feels like the beat cop is getting away with a lie.
"It's sickening. I don't want it to be true, but it's hard to believe [the officer's story] with all these people saying otherwise," Reinhardt said. "If this is true, there has to be a review and some action taken. It's a clear abuse of power."
He said the Brownsville family drove a black four-door sedan with New York plates - not ones from Virginia - when they delivered Winston to him at a reunion in Fort Greene Park.
"They took nice care of him," he said of the family, noting they bought the pup new toys. "Their little boy was sad to see Winston go."
Reinhardt said that he at first he thought the family's Sunday phone call to him was a scam - but now that he's been reunited with Winston he's glad to pay the $1,500 reward he had promised.
A scammer had previously claimed to have found Winston and used generic photos of a West Highland Terrier when she asked for the reward to be given to her on a prepaid Visa card, Reinhardt said.
The NYPD did not immediately respond to a request to comment on the actions of the cop who found Winston.
Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/09/12/2011-09-12_missing_pooch_winston_reunited_with_owners_on_911_who_feared_he_was_dognapped_la.html
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