Eight police officers in five squad cars swooped on a pensioner’s cottage to seize her ‘dangerous’ YORKSHIRE TERRIER.
Police stormed the 73-year-old’s home after tiny ‘terror’ Alfie chased a delivery man.
The ‘savage beast’ ran towards the courier who fell to the ground screaming “he’s killing me”, according to the dog’s owner Claudia Settimo.
Claudia Settimo said eight officers in five cars came to take her geriatric dog, Alfie, who weighs less than a stone, after the small terrier ran towards the man.
The driver then ran away from the 73-year-old’s garden and fell over as the ankle-sized animal jumped up at him.
Claudia, of Kingston, south west London, said: “As soon as he saw my dog he was screaming like a lunatic, screaming ‘he’s killing me’.
“He was screaming so loudly people came running out because they thought someone was being attacked.
He was left with a graze on his waist, possibly caused as he fell to the ground, and he had to be rescued by a neighbour who picked up the excitable ten-year-old canine.
Despite the minimal injury, the driver insisted he needed to be taken to the hospital.
The pensioner, who lived alone with her pedigree chum, said: “It only happened because he started running away and fell over in the garden.
“He fell over and I told him if he was afraid to just stay still.
“My neighbour came out and picked up the dog.
“It looked like the man had a little scratch above the waist, but I think that was from when he fell on the floor.
“My neighbour had to take him to the hospital because he was making such a fuss, but it was just a scratch and it could not have been a bite as his T-shirt was not damaged and it was not bleeding.
“I’m in shock.
“I suffer from anxiety and stress, and this has made it so much worse. It was really over the top to send so many people for such a small dog.
“I was treated like a criminal and I’m not.”
The grandmother claims the police took ten-year-old Alfie because of the incident at the end of June, but officers did not swoop on the property until last Friday.
She said she received a delivery from an online order and, because Alfie becomes excited around people and she lives on the ground floor, she asked the courier to leave the package outside the door.
About ten minutes later she went outside, but the courier was still there and Alfie ran through her legs to chase a cat or squirrel.
Claudia said Alfie, who she has had since he was a puppy, was taken away and she does not know when she will see him again.
She added: “I never had a letter from the police. Alfie will probably be very scared now. He’s never been in a kennel before.
“My dog is not vicious. He’s not a Rottweiler – he’s a little Yorkshire terrier. I live on my own and he’s very protective of me.
“He just likes to chase. Show me a dog who doesn’t like to chase.”
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police confirmed a search warrant was carried out at 8.08am on Friday and a dog was seized under Section 5 of the Dangerous Dogs Act.
If it is ruled little Alfie is a dangerous dog, he could be put down.
