The two French bulldogs belonging to Lady Gaga that were taken in a violent robbery during which her dog walker was shot were brought to a Los Angeles Police Department station Friday.
The dogs, Koji and Gustav, were brought to police by a good Samaritan about 6 p.m., LAPD Detective Dara Brown told City News Service.
Police said the woman found the dogs and contacted the pop star’s staff. She met them and LAPD robbery homicide detectives at the department’s Olympic Station, where she returned the pair.
The department said it would keep confidential the location where the dogs were found and the woman’s name, “due to the active criminal investigation and for her safety. “
Brown said the bulldogs “appeared to be unharmed.”
Representatives for Lady Gaga confirmed they were the dogs.
Lady Gaga made a public plea earlier Friday for the return of her dogs, and she praised the dog walker who was shot during the crime.
Earlier Friday, the pop star and actress took to social media, posting a series of photos of the bulldogs.
“My beloved dogs Koji and Gustav were taken in Hollywood two nights ago,” she wrote. “My heart is sick and I am praying my family will be whole again with an act of kindness. I will pay $500,000 for their safe return. Email KojiandGustav@gmail.com to contact us. Or, if you bought or found them unknowingly, the reward is the same.
“I continue to love you Ryan Fischer, you risked your life to fight for our family,” she said of the wounded dog-walker. “You’re forever a hero.”
Fischer remains hospitalized, but was in stable condition Friday, LAPD said. He was shot once when he was accosted by a pair of assailants about 9:40 p.m. Wednesday in the 1500 block of North Sierra Bonita Avenue, near Sunset Boulevard, two blocks north of the West Hollywood border at Fountain Avenue in that section of town.
Fischer was walking three of Lady Gaga’s dogs at the time, and the attackers made off with two of them, named. A third dog, a black French bulldog named Miss Asia, was recovered.
TMZ obtained surveillance video that captured the shooting, apparently from a home security system on Sierra Bonita Avenue. The video shows Fischer walking on the sidewalk when a white sedan pulls up and stops in the street, with two people jumping from the back seat and saying, “Give it up.”
A struggle ensues, and one gunshot can be heard, prompting Fischer to fall to the ground, screaming. The assailants each grabbed one dog and got back into the rear seat of the car, leaving Fischer on the ground yelling for help.
The black bulldog, Miss Asia, is seen on the video running back to Fischer on the ground after the assailants’ vehicle disappears from view.
Dennis Volochkova, who lives in the neighborhood, told ABC7 he heard Fischer screaming and ran to help him.
“(I) grabbed some towels from inside, ran out, got to the guy and then he told me right away who he was, who he worked for, who’s dogs they were,” Volochkova said.
Volochkova took Miss Asia, who he said was shaking and covered in blood, from Fischer as paramedics treated the wounded man.
“He was holding it so close, he didn’t want to let it go, it was his responsibility, like his baby, it almost felt like I was prying it out of his hands. “
Police described the two suspects as men about 20 to 25 years old, one with blond dreadlocks and wearing a black hoodie and carrying a semi- automatic handgun. The other was clad in dark clothing.
They fled the scene in a four-door Nissan Altima, according to the LAPD. Brown said Friday no suspects had been identified.
Lady Gaga is in Italy filming a movie.
The singer’s father, New York restaurant owner Joe Germanotta, told the New York Post Thursday the family is “just sick over it. It’s really horrible. It’s like someone took one of your kids.”
He told the Fox News Channel that Fischer is a friend of the family, and he asked for the public’s help to “catch these creeps.”
“Horrible people in L.A.,” Germanotta told the cable news channel. “Shooting someone in order to steal dogs is wrong.”
Police asked anyone with photos or video of the robbery to send them to SAFELATIPS@lapd.online. Anyone with information was asked to call Detective Marsden or Brown at 213-486-6840.
