Bus Driver Saves Dog From Being Stolen

A bus driver saved a family dog from being stolen after the would-be dog thief got on his bus. Portland bus driver Mike Thomas is a bus driver with TriMet in Portland, Oregon. From the moment he say he saw a man walking a yellow Labrador Retriever in the middle of the street, at night and without a leash he got a feeling that something just wasn’t right.

For their safety, Thomas offered the man and the dog a lift, but when the man left the dog and climbed onto the bus himself, Thomas suspicions were further raised.

Thomas asked the man if the 4-year-old Lab was his dog and the man said yes. “He said, ‘Yes, but he’s OK.’ I said, ‘No you need to get your dog, he’s in the road.’ So he called,” Thomas told KGW News. “He said ‘come here,’ but he didn’t say the dog’s name. The dog came back and he pulled the dog on by the collar.”

Then to add to the oddness, Thomas overheard the man offer to sell the dog to a woman on the bus. Thomas knew what he had to do.

After an hour on the bus the man wanted to get off, but when he did Thomas stepped forward and insisted on keeping the dog, whose name is Cooper, on board.

“I grabbed Cooper’s collar and said the dog’s gonna stay with me. I would be getting him back to his family.”

And Thomas did. Cooper’s mom, Jane Murphy, was overjoyed when she was contacted by Thomas. Jane was on vacation in Hawaii when Cooper went missing and was being cared for by her son at the time. He was at work that fateful night and neither Jane nor her son know how Cooper was snatched. But both are very happy and grateful to Thomas for stepping up and saving Cooper.

Murphy told KGW that her heart is warmed by his actions saying, “It brings great pride that there are some really good people in this world. Who are willing to go out that extra mile for our four-legged animals.”

She was reunited with Cooper and got to meet Thomas to say thanks in person in the video below. It is heartwarming that there are people like Thomas looking out for others, including our fur friends.