Stolen bulldogs recovered overnight on SA's South Side

Owners alerted to Instagram post with dogs

SAN ANTONIO – Bruce and Nugget are now home safe and sound after their owners were able to get them back overnight on the city’s South Side.

“This is like a dream,” said Crystale Gellman, who discovered the pair of English bulldogs were gone Tuesday after she came home to find it had been burglarized.

Gellman said she and her husband, Justin, said thanks to the story that aired Wednesday on KSAT 12, a young woman sent them a link to an Instagram post showing the dogs with someone apparently wanting to sell them.

Special-needs bulldog, companion stolen in broad daylight from NW Side home

She said using the personal information on the post, they contacted that person asking for their dogs back.

“We tried several times, kept calling him back,” Crystale Gellman said, until finally about 1 a.m. they got “a random phone call.”  

She said the man told them that he “didn’t want to get in trouble,” and offered to return them.
Gellman said she and her husband don’t believe he was the suspect whose image was captured on their indoor security camera.

She said they finally arranged a meeting in the parking lot of a 24-hour H-E-B on the far South Side.

“I wanted to be in full view of surveillance cameras in a lighted parking lot,” Gellman said.
She said before that, as a precaution, she also called 911.

Crystale Gellman said the two SAPD officers who responded “couldn’t believe they’d gotten the call because they’d just watched the story on KSAT.com 10 minutes earlier.”

She said the man was “very nice and very apologetic.”

Gellman said he claimed he’d bought the dogs for $1,000 from “a man on the West Side.”

It was the same amount the Gellman’s had offered as a reward, but did not want publicized.
She said all they wanted was their dogs, no questions asked, so they gave him the reward.
Gellman said dogs were obviously happy to see them.

Justin said as he drove back, his wife sat in the back of their SUV with the dogs.
“She didn’t want to leave their side,” he said.

Photos taken Thursday show Bruce and Nugget back where they belong, in their beds with their pile of dog toys between them, and Crystale Gellman rolling around with one of them on their living room floor.

The Gellmans said they are grateful to everyone who responded to their story on KSAT.

“Facebook blew up after that,” Justin Gellman said.

Fairly recent arrivals to San Antonio, they said despite this one bad experience, everyone else has been kind and compassionate.

“San Antonio has a big heart,” the couple said.


About the Author:

Jessie Degollado has been with KSAT since 1984. She is a general assignments reporter who covers a wide variety of stories. Raised in Laredo and as an anchor/reporter at KRGV in the Rio Grande Valley, Jessie is especially familiar with border and immigration issues. In 2007, Jessie also was inducted into the San Antonio Women's Hall of Fame.