Man Allegedly Trades Stepdaughter's Puppy For Meth

GettyImages-103449110 — Detective Paul Baker holds two rocks of crystal meth with a street value of NZD$83,000 alongside firearms that were confiscated as part of Operation Slab at the North Shore Policing Centre on August 19, 2010 in Auckland, New Zealand. Phil Walter/Getty Images

A North Carolina man allegedly rang in the new year with a bit of pet theft as a way to get drugs. Christopher O’Neal Eakes, 41, was arrested Monday for stealing his stepdaughter’s puppy and selling it for meth, WNCN-17 reported.

A Wayne County man is accused of stealing a puppy and exchanging it for drugs. I'll tell you what the victim has to say about it coming up on @WNCN at 6. pic.twitter.com/OVEhjDJbfv
— Kelly Kennedy (@KellyEKennedyTV) January 9, 2018

The 8-week-old Yorkshire Terrier was stolen on Jan. 1 from Eakes’s Dudley, North Carolina home. A police investigation concluded Eakes took the dog from his own stepdaughter and sold it for methamphetamine. The man was arrested Monday for larceny of a dog, which could result in Eakes serving probation and paying restitution fees if convicted. His bond was listed at $2,500, according to WNCN.

Crucially, the puppy was returned to the stepdaughter from which it was stolen, the Washington Post reported.

The concept of trading dogs for drugs gained some notoriety in 2015 when Sugar, a dog with a noteworthy Instagram presence, went missing. Sugar’s owner Morgan Bogle publicly accused her dog walker of selling off Sugar to get drugs, Gothamist reported.

An update on my dear Sugy....I sadly still know nothing about her whereabouts because the dog walker will not speak...so we are pursuing a civil case against him and will know more information in the weeks to come. Thank you so much for all your support. I still have hope that she will some day come home. _ #findsugarnyc
A post shared by Morgan Bogle (@morganbogle) on Jun 2, 2015 at 5:22am PDT