An Iraq war veteran used his expertise in the field to help track down a suspected dognapper and get the dog back home to its family.
Avery, a stolen Yorkie who belongs to Raquel Witherspoon, is safely back home thanks to Richard Machamer, who credited his Marine intelligence training with helping him locate the dog and dognappers.
“There were so many, so many rabbit holes you go down,” the United States Marine Corps veteran told Good Morning America.
Witherspoon’s dog was taken from her front yard; part of the incident was seen on a doorbell camera recording, which police used to investigate the case. The recording shows a person walking up to and luring Avery with snacks. Another person appears and both walk away with the dog.
After Witherspoon posted missing dog posters around her neighborhood, she began receiving threatening text messages and a video that appeared to show Avery locked in a cage, at which point the texter demanded $1,200.
Machamer got to work, running the dognapper’s phone number through an online database in an attempt to extract geolocation data from pictures and video. Someone on Instagram recommended he follow an account associated with that phone number.
The Marine vet used that account to find a person who looked similar to the person in the doorbell video. Police eventually arrested a 16-year-old in the theft and brought Avery home safely.