KISSIMMEE, Fla. – A 16-year-old is behind bars, accused of carjacking a woman with her dog in the back seat.
Kissimmee police said the 70-year-old woman was loading her dog in the car outside Osceola Animal Clinic last Friday when the incident happened.
"When I walked around to get in, this young man came up and started grabbing me," she told News 6. "He said, 'I want your keys. Give me the keys.' Then I tried to wrestle with him a little bit, I wanted to keep my keys."
She said she was knocked to the ground as he sped off in her car with her dog inside.
"I didn't care about the car. That's replaceable. I wanted the dog. I wanted the dog back," she said.
The woman's husband spent more than an hour searching for the car and the dog. He said he searched a warehouse area on North Smith Street, and that's where he spotted the car hidden in the back of the property.
"We go flying over to the car, and I'm hoping the dog is still in there," he told News 6. "We jump out, look in the window, and sure enough, there is the dog."
The windows were rolled up and the car was turned off. The dog was overheated.
The couple said Kissimmee police officers broke the car window to rescue the dog, and they brought him to be evaluated for heat exposure. He survived.
The next day, Kissimmee police said another car was stolen in the parking lot of the Walmart on East Osceola Parkway. They said a woman had left her car running while she loaded groceries into the car. She told police a man got in her car and sped away.
Police said they tracked her car down in Orange County on Tuesday, and they said they found Jaquari Walker, 16, behind the wheel. They said they arrested him after they matched his picture with surveillance images captured at the Walmart and at the warehouse where the car and dog were dumped.
"I just can't believe somebody is that cruel to do that to a dog," the dog's owner said. "I didn't care about the car, but to treat a dog that way -- an innocent dog."
Police said Walker was in possession of stolen property and a "realistic-looking" pellet gun. They said he had outstanding warrants from other cases.
Thursday night, he was still in Orange County juvenile detention.