Salt Lake City woman pleads for return of missing pet Corgi ‘Patsy Cline,’ says she’s being targeted by scammers

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SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, June 13, 2020 (Gephardt Daily) — Patsy Cline the Corgi has gone missing, and her human desperately wants her back, even if it means dealing with unknown characters and getting the police involved.

Zara Cardenas, who lives in the Rose Park area of Salt Lake City, says the 6-month-old puppy dug under a fence to escape the yard. Cardenas, who says she bought the odd looking merle Pembroke Welsh Corgi — who has one blue eye and one brown — in January to lift her spirits after a miscarriage.

And she named the pup after the country singer she and her late father used to listen to together.

Cardenas was upset at losing the dog, but confident that, because of Patsy’s unique look, she could post pictures on a few lost-dog social media sites and get the pooch back.

That’s when Cardenas started getting odd text messages from someone who appeared to know where the dog was.

“She went missing Thursday,” Cardenas said. “I spent six hours searching for her, thinking it was likely someone picked her up and was keeping her. I called all the animal shelters.”

So Cardenas posted the missing dog messages online, to let people know the lost dog was hers.

“The first night she went missing, I got a text saying someone had found her, and sent a six-digit Google Code to verify I was the owner.”

Scammers often use Google verification codes to recover account passwords, giving the code holder access to personal accounts.

One of Cardenas’s apps alerted her the transaction was likely to be scam-related.

“It’s really cruel that they are preying on people who are suffering a loss,” she said, crying.

“Then yesterday, a woman messaged me on Facebook, just her phone number, and said she has my dog.”

Cardenas messaged the woman back, and got no response. An hour later came the text: “I’m not giving you my dog.”

“I tried to explain I was not taking anyone else’s dog, and if you are holding a dog you found, that is illegal. The messages started getting more and more aggressive, which I found odd. I was just asking for my dog.”

Cardenas managed to track down the address attached to the phone number, and notified police, who told her the two messages she got both days were connected to the same person. They went over to the address, also in Rose Park, to knock on the door.

Dogs barked, but no one opened the door. Later, Cardenas got an additional Facebook message claiming the owner’s account had been hacked.

“It didn’t get to the point where she asked me for money when I mentioned I might get the police involved,” Cardenas said. “Because there’s no physical evidence besides screen shots, and she didn’t ask for money, they can’t press charges right now.

Cardenas doesn’t know if the woman who messaged her under two aliases has or ever had Patsy Cline, a beloved pooch who even has an Instagram following of more than 1,100 @patsyclinethecorgi.

Cardenas told Gephardt Daily she really wanted to warn other pet owners of the scams that await anyone unfortunate enough to lose a pet, then to ask the public for help to get it back.

But most of all, she wants Patsy back.

“I want to get her face out there, she is so recognizable,” Cardenas said. “I am willing to pay a reward if someone gets her back to me. She’s named in honor of my dad, who died a year ago, and she got me through my depression. She means the world to me.”