A callous dog-napper with more than 40 previous arrests snatched a beloved senior Shih Tzu from its stroller inside a Manhattan subway station last week. The thief has already been arrested and released. But the beloved pooch is still nowhere to be found.
The owner, McKina Artis, 50, of East Harlem, was bringing her pampered 11-year-old pup, Lady, back home from the groomer on July 6. As she walked through the 125th Street-Lexington Avenue station, Lady’s cup fell from her stroller. The cup rolled down the steps.
Artis stepped away for just an instant to find the cup. That was all the time the thief needed to grab Lady out of her stroller and make a run for it. Artis told The Post by phone that even a security guard was not quick enough to catch the fleet-footed dog-napper.
The suspect was later identified by cops as Ali Tarawally, 33.
“Lady is my emotional support dog,” Artis said. “When I walked back up those stairs, my stomach dropped past my feet. It went into the concrete of the train station.
I couldn’t believe it. I just couldn’t believe it. I’ve been crying every day.
I can barely eat.”
Lady was stolen from an East Harlem subway station on July 6 as her owner brought her home from the groomer. Tarawally, of West Harlem, was picked up Thursday by cops. He was charged with petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property.
But he did not produce Lady, according to authorities and Artis.
Prosecutors requested that Tarawally be held on $10,000 bail or $30,000 bond. But Judge Ilona Coleman granted him supervised release, according to the Manhattan DA’s Office.
“That shows me that the judge didn’t have any consideration, as if Lady was nothing,” Artis said. “Basically, there’s like no protection for these animals, and people love their animals. People love their animals like their kids.”
“I love Lady like she is my kid. My daughters will tell you that they think that I love Lady more than I love them. I love them equally, but I love Lady so deeply.”
Tarawally’s rap sheet dates back to 2012. The most serious offense is grand larceny for allegedly stealing a sleeping straphanger’s phone on the train in November, law enforcement sources said. He has also been busted for criminal mischief, petit larceny, criminal tampering, 𝒹𝓇𝓊𝑔 possession, and theft of service, according to the sources.
“What is it that they’re waiting for this man to do?” Artis said. “Are they waiting for this man to literally hurt a human being, like push somebody off the train tracks?
Like, what has to be done in order for this man to be sitting in jail for at least a year?”
Tarawally is next scheduled to appear in court on August 11. That date is the frustrated dog owner’s birthday.
Investigators informed Artis that Tarawally got off the train with Lady at the President St-Medgar Evers College station in Brooklyn, she said. Since then, the devastated owner has been plastering the neighborhood with missing dog flyers. She does this despite fears that the alleged thief already sold her Shih Tzu.
“Although she’s a senior, she’s a very cute dog,” Artis said. “She’s well-kept. She has a purple ponytail on her hair.
She wears clothes.”
“I think the attention that Lady got originally was because he saw that she was cute,” she added. “He probably figured he could sell her.”
But Artis said Lady has been spayed, so she cannot be used for breeding. Lady also suffers from health issues.
In a now-𝓿𝒾𝓇𝒶𝓁 TikTok posted by a tearful Artis and her daughter Christina, they described Lady as a “Velcro baby” who will not eat or drink without her owner by her side. They pleaded for her return.
“I got her for my middle daughter’s Sweet 16,” said the mom of three, who has lived in East Harlem for seven years. “And Lady kind of leaned towards me….I’m Lady’s ying, and she’s my yang.”
“She’s my everything,” Artis added. “I just don’t even have the words to express what Lady means to me.”
