Colorado Woman Allegedly Steals A Dog While Owner Was Dying Of Seizure

A Colorado woman was arrested last week after she allegedly stole a dog while the animal’s owner was suffering from a seizure that proved fatal.

Robert Corbey, 59, had taken his dog for a walk to a 7-Eleven in Longmont on Tuesday, July 30, when he collapsed from a seizure, local CBS affiliate KKTV reports. Corbey, who had reportedly been feeling sick that day, later died at the hospital, but surveillance footage captured in the convenience store at the time of his seizure shows a woman making off with Sampson, Corbey’s dog, while he was being treated at the scene.

Longmont Deputy Chief Jeff Satur saw a couple walking the missing dog the following day, according to KKTV. The couple told police that a woman had given them the dog, and that they’d fed him and gave him a bath.

“They knew the dog was missing,” Satur said. “They were like, ‘Here, take the dog.'”

Police then identified Melody Mellon, 30, as a suspect in the case of the missing dog after they arrested her early Thursday, August 1, in relation to an alleged car theft. After a woman called police at around 4:30 a.m. that day to report her suspicion that Mellon, her son’s ex-girlfriend, had stolen her pickup truck, police tracked down the truck and found Mellon passed out inside, the Denver Channel reports. When confronted by police, Mellon allegedly lied about her name and kicked the arresting officers as they tried to place her in the patrol car, according to the outlet.

The officers took Mellon to be checked out a local hospital, and then transported her to the Boulder County jail, with Mellon “intentionally [urinating] and [spitting] inside the patrol vehicle” on the way there, according to a probable cause statement obtained by the outlet.

Melon is facing charges that include auto theft, assaulting a police officer, and resisting arrest, as well as a number of outstanding warrants related to traffic violations and drugs, the Denver Channel reports. Police identified Mellon as being the suspect seen stealing Sampson in the surveillance footage, and she was given a municipal summons of theft of $100 or more for the alleged dog-napping.

Corbey’s family was reunited with his beloved Sampson — a therapy dog that Corbey adopted to help with his anxiety and depression — on Wednesday, CBS Denver reports.

The dog was “thrilled” to see his prior owner’s family, police said. And the feeling was mutual.

“It feels like we have a piece of my uncle having Sampson back,” Corbey’s niece Kelly Pleffner told CBS Denver.