Rover petsitter leaves dog outside for hours, then finds him dead, Florida cops say

When she answered a call from the petsitter she’d hired to watch her dog while she was away, the woman began to weep and “nearly fell to ground,” an arrest affidavit from a Florida sheriff’s office says.

On the other end of the phone, the petsitter was telling her that her dog, Rolo, had died.

Now, the 33-year-old sitter, who advertised herself as a dog caretaker on the platform Rover.com, is facing one count of animal cruelty after investigators found the dog died of heatstroke in her care, according to the affidavit from the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office.

She was arrested on Oct. 14, according to Brevard County jail records.

Police said that the woman had found the sitter on the Rover platform and had used the site previously to book her services, but she arranged this particular booking directly with the sitter so that she could pay cash, according to the affidavit.

Rover, an online platform that allows clients to search for and book freelancers to perform a variety of pet-related services, said in a statement that this particular booking was not made through the platform. The company still opened an investigation into the incident and has permanently blocked the sitter from advertising services on the site.

“The safety of the pets and people on our platform is a top priority,” the statement says. “All sitters who list their services on Rover must pass a criminal background check provided by an industry-leading third party. Additionally, they must pass a safety quiz and their profile is reviewed by our team before they are able to connect with pet parents. For services booked through our platform, we also have the Rover Guarantee in place to provide support in the extremely rare instance a service doesn’t go as planned.”

Rolo’s owner, along with her husband and two sons, dropped off their three dogs at the petsitter’s house in Cocoa, Florida, on Sept. 2 before going away for Labor Day weekend, according to the affidavit. The owner told the sitter that Rolo shouldn’t be left outside unattended and should always be on a leash outdoors.

Cocoa is about 45 miles southeast of Orlando.

The following morning, the sitter texted Rolo’s owner a photo of the dog where he appeared to be in a “cowering position” with his head tilted, the affidavit says.

“Rolo doesn’t look happy in the pic,” the woman texted, according to the affidavit. “Is he behaving okay for you?”

The sitter responded that he was just “itchy” and had been scratching on a corner of a wall.

That evening, just before 8 p.m., she called to tell the woman that she’d been looking for Rolo and had found him dead in the yard, the affidavit says.

The woman and her husband packed their things and left their trip early to go to the sitter’s house.

When they arrived, they found Rolo’s body inside a cardboard box on the front porch wrapped in a towel, the affidavit says..

The sitter said she didn’t know how Rolo died, but Rolo’s owners said his body was covered in dirt, leading them to believe that he’d been outside in the yard for a long period of time, according to the affidavit.

Also, a bag of dog food that Rolo’s owner had dropped off looked like it hadn’t been opened, the affidavit says.

The sitter later told deputies that the last time she had seen Rolo alive was between 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. on Sept. 3, the affidavit says. She found him dead in the yard at around 7 p.m.

A necropsy determined that Rolo died of heatstroke, the affidavit says. Investigators said they also saw three bruises on Rolo’s body.

The sitter was released from jail on Oct. 15 and is awaiting trial, according to Brevard County jail records.

Man jailed after dog dies in hot car with windows rolled up, North Carolina cops say

Family dog dies protecting kids from mountain lion in Colorado. ‘True loving warrior’

Man breaks into animal shelter and frees many of its 150 dogs, Texas officials say