Dog of Eagles player’s mom stolen from a Target. Here’s how much she’s offering as a reward

This holiday season, gifts, store merchandise and mail packages aren’t the only thing getting swiped.

Small dogs are too, apparently.

“I know that she’s scared. I know that she misses me,” Tralee-Hale-Ringo, 44, told 6ABC. She is offering $1,000 as a reward for the safe return of her 10-year-old Shih Tzu.

The theft happened to the mother of Eagles cornerback Kelee Ringo and occurred on Oct. 28 just before 9:30 a.m. at a Target store on Castor Avenue in the Port Richmond neighborhood of Philadelphia while shopping for Halloween candy.

According to Hale-Ringo, she usually puts her dog in the shopping cart but on this day, her dog was walking loose alongside her.

When she went to the bathroom, thats when she was separated from the dog.

“I just kind of rushed in there and opened the door and she just didn’t clear the door. There was no question in my mind that she’d be waiting for me on the other side of the door. And when she wasn’t, I knew right away that something had happened,” Hale Ringo said.

“She’s so well behaved, she’s so well trained … theft never crossed my mind,” she added.

When she came out no more than a minute later, the small dog was gone.

A group of four young adults and a child left the Port Richmond store with the dog, according to surveillance video and pictures that were released by authorities Tuesday.

Once Hale-Ringo realized her dog was missing, she called out for her dog and went to the store’s security, but it was too late.

The dog was equipped with an external Apple Airtag tracking device on its collar, but Hale-Ringo told 6ABC that it was discarded near the 2800 block of Aramingo Avenue, which was the dog’s last known location more than a month ago.

“I’m lost without my daughter,” Hale Ringo told the news outlet. “I’m just in shock and I’m just lost. She’s been my best friend for the past 10 years. I overcame breast cancer and she was right by my side the entire time.”

Now, to get her beloved dog back, Hale-Ringo is offering $1,000 to anyone who returns the dog to the police, no questions asked.

“Hopefully that’ll help with their Christmas,” she said, adding that charges will not be pressed. “She’s missing us and wanting to come home.”

Also, it’s unlikely the small dog was mistaken for a stray.

Hale-Ringo said her dog was wearing a dress, jewelry, and a hair tie and, as usual for October, had her nails painted and tail dyed pink for breast cancer awareness, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

For so long, Hale-Ringo and her son considered the dog part of the family and the opportunistic theft during the holiday season has certainly put a damper on things.

“I have one son … and she’s my daughter,” she said.

“I’m just hoping that the individuals who took her will hear this message and understand how much I love her and miss my dog, and hopefully they’ll just have a heart and return her. I just have high hopes that these people have a heart,” she added.

Anyone with information about the dog’s whereabouts should contact East Detectives at 215-686-3250.