SCOTTSDALE - When Laura Middleton came home from work last Friday, she found her dog, Bomber, lying on her bed, whimpering.
Then she saw the hole in his left side, torn open by a pellet gun, she said.
Middleton, 22, and other residents at the Casita Real condos at Indian School and Granite Reef roads were papered with fliers last week signed by someone claiming to be "the sniper" and warning them that their dogs would be killed if their waste wasn't cleaned up.
"First you just freak out and get a little hysterical," said Middleton, a waitress. Eventually, she took the dog to a veterinarian, and Bomber is recovering from his wound.
Police are investigating the shooting and the flier distribution, said Detective Sam Bailey of the Scottsdale Police Department. The Middleton files weren't immediately available, he said.
Middleton, who called police when the fliers were first put on residents' cars a week ago and again when her dog was shot, is worried that police and her homeowners association aren't doing enough to stop other shootings.
"I don't feel safe living there, I don't feel safe keeping my dog there," she said. "Every noise that I hear, every move my dog makes, I am awake."
The fliers, typewritten in all capital letters on white paper, address all dog owners in the condo complex.
"I am sorry to say effective immediatley (sic), your dog will be shot on the spot if you do not pick up his dog (expletive). I will be in a bush/a tree/car/van/window. Consider yourself warned!!! I am sick of looking at dog (expletive) all over this property. It's simple. Your dog will live if you pick-up (sic), die if you don't."
The notes were the first Middleton heard of anyone's displeasure with dogs at the complex, she said.
"Just about everyone in that complex has dogs," she said. "This has never been an issue that I know of."
http://www.azcentral.com/community/scot ... t12Z8.html
