Delivery driver accused of nabbing Finn, ‘a 14-year-old little treasure’ of a dog

West Wichita resident Becky Howell wants to share the story of what happened to her English Setter, Finn, last week, both as a cautionary tale and to let people know there’s still good in the world.

She and her husband, Nick, were running errands late Wednesday afternoon and returned to their home in the Savanna neighborhood at 13th and 143rd streets and realized Finn wasn’t in the yard where they left him, which she said is extremely unusual.

“He won’t leave the yard unless we encourage him to,” Howell said. “He’s just a 14-year-old little treasure.”

In fact, though there’s an invisible fence in the yard, it wasn’t on because Finn is so good about staying home.

“He’s kind of a neighborhood favorite,” Howell said.

“Everybody knows him,” she said, and he’s “just as friendly as he can be.”

The Howells started calling neighbors as soon as they realized Finn was missing.

One neighbor was able to share photos and video from a security camera that showed a man in a truck taking Finn, who had been sleeping under his favorite front-yard tree where he likes to watch people as they walk by.

A former FBI agent who lives nearby saw the footage and asked why the man might have been in the neighborhood.

“That started us to question a little bit more about what he was doing,” Becky Howell said.

That led to the son of their next-door neighbor telling them the person had made a DoorDash delivery to his house.

The man dropped off the food “and then he came over and took our dog,” Howell said.

She was able to reach DoorDash and shared with the San Francisco-based company the driver’s phone number.

While Howell stayed on the phone, DoorDash reached out to the driver.

“He admitted that he took our dog and said he thought it was a stray.”

Except Finn was wearing a collar and a fresh scarf from having just been groomed.

“There’s no way he thought that was a stray,” Howell said.

“To DoorDash’s credit, they played along,” she said.

At the moment, a company representative knew the important thing was to get Finn back to the Howells, and he instructed the driver to return him, Howell said.

Later, she said, a DoorDash representative told her the driver was fired.

Finn had been gone almost five hours before he was returned.

“Well, of course, we were so relieved, right?” Howell said. “By this time, all our neighbors had gotten involved.”

When the driver arrived and handed over Finn, neighbors confronted him.

“He barely reacted,” Howell said. “He just stared straight ahead.”

The Howells filed a police report, and Becky Howell said DoorDash is cooperating.

“DoorDash has zero tolerance for theft of any kind on our platform and have permanently removed the individual’s account,” a DoorDash representative said via e-mail. “We know this was a distressing experience for the dog’s owner, and are incredibly relieved that they’ve been reunited.”

Howell said she wants others to be aware of what can happen.

“It could have been a child, not a dog. You just never know.”

It took a little bit for Finn to adjust to being back.

“He was nervous and wanted to kind of avoid us . . . for 30, 45 minutes,” Howell said. “I think he was almost in shock.”

Finn eventually settled and ate a bit and slept pretty well, Howell said. A veterinarian examined him Thursday and didn’t find any injuries or issues.

“What’s hard is that this dog has lived 14 years with the freedom to roam his yard, and we hate to take that away from him,” Howell said.

Still, in addition to getting back Finn, Howell said it was fabulous to receive help and support from about a dozen neighbors.

“It’s a nice reminder that we do have good citizens who want to help, and that made us feel good.”