When Covid forced us to fold up our old lives and pack them away for the foreseeable future,

the simple pleasures in life suddenly meant so much more.

Baking, bird song, taking the dog for a walk.

But now, the pandemic seems to have cast a dark shadow over that too.

A young man came up behind him and punched him in the lower back and shoved him to the ground.

He had let go of the lead and then both men ran away laughing together with Ted on the lead with them.

I heard barking in a vehicle outside the hedge row and I never saw Hazel since that point.

I have a dog called Nala who has recently been stolen on the 18th of February 2021

by who we think is a man who was following her dog Walker's van.

Dog theft is reportedly on the rise, but what's fueling this crime spree?

And what can be done to stop it?

This has become a very lucrative market for criminals to exploit.

We've got evidence of so-called crime groups and ethnic criminality.

This is a very serious issue. It's horrible. It's absolutely horrible quite frankly.

You're listening to stories of our times from the times and the Sunday times.

I'm Manvina Rana. Today, dog theft. Inside the canine crime epidemic.

As if coronavirus wasn't bad enough, families across the country

are being hit by another fear that's spreading fast.

I'm Lucinda Jasper and I'm the daughter of Ted's owner, Mike.

When Ted was stolen a few months ago,

Lucinda and her family were left reeling, but they're not alone.

There's been an estimated 250% rise in dog thefts since the pandemic began.

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