An Elm Street woman last week told authorities she would “pepper spray” or “kill” a neighbor’s dog following an apparently false complaint that the animal had bitten her aide, police records show.
At about 2:42 p.m. on Sept. 20 (a Sunday), police were called to a Prides Crossing condominium on a report of a dog bite, according to a case report filed by Officer Austin Malizia and obtained by NewCanaanite.com through a public records request.
There, the complainant said she’d seen a woman bit outside the condo complex by her neighbor’s dog, the report said.
The aide told police she was outside “when a black poodle came up to her and bit her in her leg,” the report said. The aide said “she was so startled, she fell over into the bushes,” it said. Malizia said the aide’s leg appeared to have a small cut and minor bruising. A member of New Canaan Emergency Medical Services arrived and evaluated the woman, stating that “the laceration did not match a typical dog bite.”
The EMT “stated that a dog bite typically would have round puncture holes which he did not see,” the case report said.
Meanwhile, police interviewed the dog’s owner, entering her unit at the condo complex to ask “if she knew the reason for my visit.”
“She stated no,” the report said. “I asked her if she was the owner of the black poodle which was walking around inside her home. She stated yes and that his name was Charlie. I asked her if she was aware that her dog bit her neighbor’s aide. She stated no, and that her dog was very friendly and wouldn’t bite anyone.”
The dog’s owner told police that Charlie got out when she took out the garbage earlier, “but came inside once she got back,” the report said.
The dog, who is up-to-date on his vaccines, was asked by police to remain indoors the rest of the day.
As police were leaving, another neighbor said she saw what happened from her kitchen and that Charlie “did not bite” the aide, the report said. Rather, the dog did “walk onto her front lawn and go ‘pee,’ ” it said. Charlie did walk over briefly to the complaining neighbor’s door “but nobody was outside” and the dog went back to his own unit.
Officer Sean Godejohn, head of the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section, followed up the following day, Sept. 21. He received a phone call from the complainant who said that “Charlie was always loose.”
She “told this officer that she was going to pepper spray the dog or kill the dog,” Godejohn said in a supplementary report,” and that she “was very upset and frustrated.”
Godejohn then interviewed the dog’s owner who said that the three-year-old poodle mix “escaped from her apartment but would never bite anyone,” the report said. Charlie was ordered quarantined on-property through Sept. 30.