A dog owner has been left “shaken” after a man grabbed her and allegedly tried to photograph her address on her dog’s collar in Aberdeen city centre.
Megs Louise Matheson was not surprised when a passer-by wanted to get a closer look at her puppy while out on a daily walk down Park Street.
Winnie, a 12-week-old dachshund, often draws attention and is used to being adored by strangers on the street.
However, this time felt different to Ms Matheson, as she claimed this man took a little too much of an interest in Winnie.
She said: “She’s a tiny wee puppy and she’s got a very cute face so the number of people who come up and speak to us is astronomical.
“This guy was asking all the normal questions but I could just tell there was something a bit funny about him.”
‘I’ve got a massive hand print on my forearm’
The 24-year-old claims that the man then asked if he could take a photo of Winnie to show his daughter.
She believes that he was trying to photograph the dog’s collar, which has their home address on it.
She said: “I popped her on the floor and he bent down, from where I was standing it looked like he was just stroking her face, but when I looked down I noticed he was trying to get a photo of her collar.
“It has our home address on it and my contact details on it. As soon as I realised what he was doing I scooped her up and told him to go away, I used some choice words.”
Ms Matheson alleges that the man then turned to physical means of getting to Winnie, leaving her bruised.
She said: “I had her in a kind of cradle position and he started grabbing at my arms trying to get to her.
“He actually really hurt my arm, I’ve got a massive hand print on my forearm from him trying to get her.
“I’ve got a massive quite sore bruise on my forearm and you can see where his thumb was then there are little bruises from where he was trying to grab.”
Ms Matheson claims that she started screaming and Winnie, who is “the sweetest puppy ever” and never bites, growled at the man.
Their reaction allegedly sent him running.
A warning to other dog owners
Both Ms Matheson and Winnie have been left “really shaken” by the incident.
Ms Matheson said: “Poor thing, I think she’s a bit traumatised.
“She was a real mess after it, she’s very protective of me and when she couldn’t see me she would start whimpering and crying.”
Ms Matheson added that the police told her that there have been a few instances of dog theft and attempted dog theft in the area recently.
She said: “Over lockdown the prices have skyrocketed, lots of people are working from home and thinking they’d like to have a dog rather than sitting in on their own.
“I reported it to the police and they did say there have been quite a few similar incidents in our area.
“Because we’re in the city centre it’s rife, that’s where all the little dogs are.”
Now feeling “anxious” about going out on their walks, Ms Matheson wanted to warn other dog owners to be alert for this kind of behaviour.
She said: “This was in broad daylight, it wasn’t in the middle of the night, it was 10am in the morning.
“People are desperate, so many people have lost their jobs, it’s not always the people you’d think, some people just turn to it because they’re desperate.”