French Bulldogs stolen by masked suspects in Dover home invasion

DOVER, Del. – Delaware State Police are investigating after six masked suspects broke into a Dover home and stole four French Bulldogs.

Home surveillance footage shows six masked suspects, one armed with a rifle, breaking into the Dover-area home of Lyric Anderson and her boyfriend Sam Schuman on Monday evening.

“It’s just nerve-wracking staying here,” Anderson told 47 ABC News. “I don’t know if they’re going to come back or what they came here for.”

What started out as a normal Monday night turned into a nightmare after Anderson left to grab some ice cream from a local grocery store. When she returned, she tells us she immediately noticed something was wrong after she saw that her front door was wide open.

“After I walk in the front door, I notice that our sliding glass door was busted, there was glass everywhere, and I notice our bedroom, our bed was flipped,” Anderson explained. “So, after I saw that, I was still on the phone with Sam and I was like ‘yea, someone definitely broke in.'”

Terrified, knowing someone had been inside her home, Anderson ran to her vehicle, still on the phone with her boyfriend.

“I was like ‘yeah, someone definitely broke-in,” Anderson explained, recalling the conversation. “I didn’t know if anyone was still here at that point, and I’m a 110 lbs soaking wet, and later when we looked at the footage there was six guys, five of them I believe are African American, and then there was one Caucasian.”

While watching the footage, it was clear to Anderson and Schuman that they stole their four pups – Londyn, Stormi, Pax, and Celine.

“We have multiple footages of them carrying the dogs out of the front door,” Anderson said. “I’m really upset.”

Anderson and Schuman have other dogs as well, one of which is a Great Dane, who Anderson tells us is devastated and grieving the loss of her siblings.

“She’s depressed,” Anderson said. “She won’t leave the bed, she’s just laying around.”

Speculating on a possible motive for stealing the dogs, Anderson says it’s likely because of their breed and how expensive they are to purchase: “the dogs that we breed are expensive so I think a lot of people were just thinking it was a quick buck.”

While the couple does breed frenchies, Anderson tells us the four that the suspects stole are their family, and now all she wants is her babies back.

“The four dogs that they took are our family dogs,” Anderson explained. “Those are the dogs that are inside, everyday, those are the dogs that sleep with us at night. Pax, the white one, he’s actually my boyfriend’s first dog ever.”

Not only was Pax the first of Schuman’s pups, Pax was also his emotional support animal.

“My one dog Pax, that was my first dog, he’s really an emotional support dog,” Schuman explained. “I never bought him intending to breed him or anything. So, I just worry about that.”

Schuman also worries about the condition the dogs might be in and whether or not they’re being abused.

“I worry about their health,” Schuman stressed. “Stormi’s just a pup, she don’t know no better. She’s still a puppy, does puppy things, like if this ain’t a real dog person they might beat her when she uses the potty in the house, might not be letting her out the way she needs to be for a puppy. Pax might be laying in a cage and poop, he’s never done that, he’s a house dog, he’s house trained, he’s never even seen a cage. I worry about all that.”

There’s also medication that at least one of the dog’s, Londyn, needs as she recently gave birth.

“She just had a litter of puppies, she needs medication still, she still needs to be taken care of,” Anderson emphasized. “Frenchies get C-sections when they give birth, so we have to tend to that and give her medication, so it’s really about their health at this point. And then when they broke the sliding glass door, all of the dogs ran through the glass. I just want to make sure my dogs are ok.”

During the interview, the couple pleaded with the suspects to return their pups.

“Please,” Schuman stressed. “At this point, I don’t even care why, I just want my dogs. I don’t need to know who it was, I don’t need anything, I just want my dogs.”

Anderson, also broken hearted over the ordeal, pleaded with the suspects to return her dogs.

“At the end of the day, we’re really just worried about getting our dogs back,” Anderson said. “We’re not pressed to get anyone in trouble at this point, just give us our dogs back.”

47 ABC News reached out to Delaware State Police who confirmed that they are in fact investigating. Anyone with information on the incident is urged to reach out to law enforcement.