Remorseful burglars have returned a little girl’s dog after her dad made an emotional plea.
The crooks broke into the family home on Saturday (28 September) and made off with jewellery worth tens of thousands of euros.
They also stole 12-year-old Miriam’s pet German Spitz, named Maui, leaving her distraught.
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Miriam is a wheelchair user due to a severe genetic condition.
Desperate to comfort his little girl, dad Rosario, took to social media to ask for her beloved pet to be returned.
“I don’t care about the things that were stolen from my home,” he said.
“But I’m begging whoever took my daughter’s dog to please return him.
“My little girl is heartbroken and it’s making her condition worse.”
He added: “As someone who relies on a wheelchair, he means everything to her.
“The dog is microchipped and all I want is to get him back, not the other stuff these people stole from our home.”
The heart-breaking story was widely shared all over Italy, as reported by Need To Know.
And it appears to have reached the burglars, too.
Rosario received an anonymous phone call on Monday (30 Sep) night.
A man told him that they had left the orange-coloured pooch outside his block of flats in Acerra, north-east of Naples.
Rosario added: “They said, with a foreign accent, that they were returning him for the girl.
“They said, ‘See, we’re thieves, but honest ones.’
“All of Italy rallied for my daughter Miriam, which is why they gave him back.
“Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. My daughter is crying tears of joy.”
He added: “When they saw each other again, Miriam cried for half an hour.”
