Updated: 'Lucky' Beagle Dodges Jewel Thieves

Welcome home, Lucky.

A Rossmoor Family, whose beagle, “Lucky,” went missing Thursday night after their home was ransacked by burglars, got their pooch back Friday morning.

Carol Scotti, a Rossmoor resident since 1992, said she came home after searching for her dog at a nearby animal shelter to find the brown, black and white canine in her yard. Scotti said she wasn’t sure if the burglars returned the dog, if the dog came back on his own or if a neighbor found him and returned him.  However, she thinks one of the neighbors  may have found the animal running through the neighborhood and brought him back.

Though burglary suspects made off with about $5,000 worth of her jewelry, Scott said she’d rather have the dog.

“It’s a pretty happy ending,” Scotti said. “The jewelry, some of it was sentimental, but dogs are like your family.”

On Thursday night, Scotti came home to her residence on the 11200 block of Wembley Road to find her back door broken and her room ransacked. Scotti said the burglars took mostly pearls, some of which she’d had for more than 20 years.

Realizing that the burglars could still be in the house, she hurried to her car and locked the doors. That’s when she remembered Lucky hadn’t come out to meet her, like he usually did.

Scotti called the Orange County Sheriff's Department at about 8:55 p.m. Thursday.

After spending the night at her sister's, Scotti went to a nearby animal shelter to see if Lucky had been picked up. She went home from there and was just about to expand her search when she found Lucky in her yard.

Scotti said she thinks Lucky must have gotten out through the gate when the burglars came in. She said she's also sure the dog wasn't just hiding at home -- the deputies investigated the place, looking for clues of the burglars' identities and trying to help find Lucky.

Scotti said she’s excited to have him back and that she wants to thank the Rossmoor Predator Management Team for “all the support” in helping to find lucky.

“It was wonderful,” Scotti said.

Rebecca Lara, one of the co-founders of the team, said she and her husband helped looked for the dog Thursday night and sent an email out to their members asking for help today.

Lara also put up signs at 7 a.m. Friday to help find the dog.

Lara said she’d received about 40 emails from residents who were concerned about Lucky or wanted to help, which Lara said is a sign of the “close-knit nature of the Rossmoor Predator Management Team membership.”