Malcolm Campbell seems none the worse for wear despite his dramatic Saturday.
And neither does his cherished dog, Teddy.
Although the 91-year-old man is now without a car, Teddy is safely back home with him at Sandycove Acres in Innisfil.
“Poor Teddy, he musta had a hell of an afternoon,” Campbell said.
Teddy, a small Corgi-like dog with short legs, was in the back seat of Campbell’s Mazda 3 when two women hopped into the car as Campbell looked through the grass for his missing key fob.
The pair quickly took off.
“These two women were real smooth operators,” said Campbell, who was surprised that they somehow managed to relieve the fob from his retractable keychain while leaving all the other keys in check.
Campbell figures it must have happened as he tried to give the women a boost to another car in the parking lot of Golden Meadow Park, where he had stopped to let Teddy stretch his tiny legs while on his way home.
Along with contacting police, Campbell reached out to his daughter, Dawn Baxter. Her daughter, Campbell’s granddaughter, then posted a photo of the dog and the car along with a $500 reward on social media.
And the messages, providing a near play-by-play account of what ensued, then flowed in.
“It was incredible,” said Baxter, adding people just wanted to see Campbell, who lost his wife of 64 years a year ago, reunited with his best buddy.
“My daughter got a direct message from somebody saying: ‘Hey, I think your father’s car just flipped over in front of my mom’s house here in Oro-Medonte and we just witnessed it.’
“And, sure enough, that was the car," she added.
A picture of the Mazda, which had come to rest upside down after it apparently flipped several times and the nearby hydro pole on a precarious angle, soon followed.
Then came a call from someone who reported the woman was fleeing from the scene.
Campbell’s granddaughter, Ricki-Lee Cordeiro-Baxter, learned that the OPP tracking dog was then called into action to find the woman.
“I don’t know if they had (police) scanners or what, but somehow people were keeping in touch with Ricki-Lee exactly what was going on, moment by moment,” Baxter said. “The canine unit tracked this woman to an attic; she was hiding in an attic.”
There was also some suggestion that the second woman who had been in the car had earlier been dropped off at the Yonge Street and Big Bay Point area.
But Teddy remained a going concern, because he hadn’t yet been found.
Baxter’s family understood from police that once the female suspect had been located, she told police she had put the dog into a nearby open car.
“Then the OPP officer went back and brought Teddy back home,” said Baxter.
Happily back at home by early evening, there was no indication that the absconded dog had been on a harrowing car ride resulting in a spectacular crash.
Campbell was just trying to help the woman when they took advantage of his kindness, Baxter said.
Over the years, he had donated the maximum amount of blood allowed, she said. He was an active volunteer with the Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre Auxiliary, until the pandemic shut down their active involvement and sings in the local glee club.
“He’s been a saint his entire life,” said his daughter. “It was a super happy ending. It could have been so much worse.”
