Burglars stole terrier named 'Betty' from Rittenhouse Square apartment

Alison Rans couldn't care less about the cameras and television that burglars stole Friday from her Rittenhouse Square apartment.

It's her dog Betty that they also stole that she wants back so dearly.

"I called 911. The first thing I said was they took the dog and [the officer] stopped for a moment and was like, 'What?' He said he'd never worked a case where they took the dog," Rans said.

Now, city police are on the hunt for the burglars who stole the 5- to 7- year-old Chinese crested powder puff/terrier mix. She's black with a gray streak along her forehead. She was rescued last August from the Camden County Animal Shelter.

"Everything would come to under $2,000," Rans, who is now staying with her parents in New Jersey, said of the stolen items. "But it's Betty that is irreplaceable."

When Rans, 34, arrived home from work shortly after 6 p.m. to her first-floor apartment in the 2000 block of Walnut Street, she found shattered wood on the ground and then noticed her front door was broken by what cops later declared a crowbar.

"The first thing I did was run in to get Betty, my foster dog," said Rans, who has been caring for Betty the last four months for West Jersey Volunteers for Animals, a rescue organization. "I yelled her name and didn't hear her. The door was open to her crate. Then I ran to her travel bag, which she likes to lay in. Her bag was gone."

Rans said four other break-ins have occurred in her building and the one right next door, which has a Moravian Street entrance to studio apartments. A detective is working those cases, Rans said, who added that a police officer who took the report of her burglary declared it the work of at least two thieves.

A police spokeswoman confirmed one other burglary occurred on the 2000 block of Moravian Street — a side street between Walnut and Sansom streets — on June 19.

A message left for Capt. Frank Banford of the Ninth Police District was not immediately returned Monday afternoon.

Rans doesn't plan on renewing her apartment lease and she said she's not going to live in that neighborhood again, but does want to move back into the city after she saves some money. She didn't have renter's insurance. But where she lives and how much money she saves isn't really on her mind now.

"She makes funny noses when she's in the car," Rans said of Betty. "She's such a character. ... I want them to give her back."