When a dog owner’s pet goes missing, the only concern (usually) is that the dog gets returned. That’s why so many reward postings include the line “no questions asked.” The most important thing is to be reunited with your pup, right? If that means the person who took your dog decides to return it, so be it. But what if the person who helped your pup get knapped, then returned them, demanded a financial reward via a lawsuit? That’s what Lady Gaga is facing following the theft of her two pooches that left her dog walker critically wounded from a gunshot.
Lady Gaga Sued by Dog Thief Accomplice
If you missed the drama the first time around, allows us to fill you in. Back in February 2021, Lady Gaga’s two French Bulldogs were stolen during a robbery in Hollywood. The canine heist involved a gun, and the shooting almost killed her dog walker, Ryan Fischer.
A woman named Jennifer McBride returned the Grammy Award-winning singer’s fur babies, Koji and Gustav. McBride was one of five people arrested in April 2021 surrounding the dog theft. But now, McBride is suing Lady Gaga for failing to pay her the $500,000 reward the celeb offered for the safe return of her pups.
According to People, McBride’s attorney claims that because Lady Gaga said the reward came with “no questions asked,” the singer (whose real name is Stefani Germanotta) is in breach of contract, and guilty of fraud by false promise and fraud by misrepresentation because she failed to pay McBride the hefty reward.
The lawsuit states that the Academy Award Winner’s “no questions asked” offer was made “with the intent to defraud and induce members of the public, such as Plaintiff, to rely upon it and to act upon said promise by locating and delivering Lady Gaga’s bulldogs to Defendants.”
Crime and Punishment
McBride was dating Harold White, one of the accomplices to the dog walker shooting, at the time of the crime. An LAPD news release described the couple as “determined to be accessories after the initial crime.”
James Jackson, the man who shot Fischer, pleaded no contest to attempted murder with great bodily injury, and was sentenced to 21 years in prison. At Jackson’s sentencing, Fischer described how his life had deteriorated since that fateful day he was shot.
“You shot me and left me to die, and both of our lives have changed forever,” Fischer said. “I do forgive you. With the attack, you completely altered my life. I know I can’t completely move on from the night you shot me until I said those words to you.”
Fischer suffered a collapsed lung as a result of the shooting, and reportedly went into debt, and experienced a “loss of career, friendships, aimlessly traveling the country” after the ordeal.
If anyone gets the reward money, we think it should be the dog walker. But that’ll be for the judge to decide.
