Owner offers reward after dog killed in hit-and-run
A Wading River resident and business owner is hoping someone in the Hulse Landing area — or anywhere, for that matter — can help him find who ran over his 4-year-old shar pei, Tonka.
Jesse Swenk said he had got home from work around 1 p.m. on Saturday, when he let Tonka out to go to the bathroom at his Park Street home.
“Then I heard a car take off — no screech, no nothing,” he recalled. “As soon as I heard I went outside. It’s a rough thing to go through.”
He said letting the dog out without a leash is something he said he typically does.
“Ninety percent of the people who drive by live in the neighborhood and look out for her, and bring her treats and all that,” he said.
Mr. Swenk — who owns Wading River’s Defined Health and Fitness — offered a reward yesterday on Facebook for up to $1,000 to anyone who knows who hit the dog and ran.
Though New York State Traffic law states that such an action could draw a $100 fine, Mr. Swenk said he did not file a police report after the incident.
“I thought about filing a police report, but what is that gonna do? It doesn’t bring the dog back,” he said.
What was most strange about the incident, Mr. Swenk said, was that whoever hit the dog stopped and put it on a neighbor’s lawn after it was hit.
In his Facebook post asking for help tracking down the driver — a post which as of Tuesday afternoon had nearly 1,500 shares — he wrote, “The thought that they hit her, got out of the car, picked her up an put her on the neighbors lawn and drove off is the point that is killin me.”
