An American Bully dog named Roc swiped from a homeless man sleeping on a Bronx subway train was reunited with his owner Thursday after someone dropped the purloined pooch off at an NYPD stationhouse in the borough, officials said.
“That’s Daddy’s Roc! That’s Daddy’s Roc!” overjoyed dog owner Charles Williams screamed outside the 44th Precinct stationhouse as his four-legged best friend smothered him with sloppy dog kisses.
The two have been separated since early Sunday, when someone stole Roc as Williams, 45, slept on a northbound D train heading into the Norwood-205th St. station, the line’s last stop.
“That’ll never happen again,” Williams whispered to Roc as he petted the excited pooch. “I’m so sorry. I got you. I got you. You’re OK. You’re OK.”
The dog was dropped off anonymously outside the NYPD police station, which is four blocks from Yankee Stadium, Thursday morning, a police source with knowledge of the case said.
Whoever left the pooch there didn’t stick around to talk to police about it, the source said.
“He’s my companion. He’s my best friend. He’s my family. I can’t go without him,” said Williams, who moved to the city from upstate Poughkeepsie around three years ago. “If the person that took him decided to bring him back, he did the right thing. I thank the cops for doing their job, a diligent job, in finding him.”
The man who snatched Roc, who was described as being in his 20s and was last seen sporting a black Yankees cap and medium-length braids, remained on the loose Thursday.
Once the dog was dropped off at the precinct, cops immediately recognized Roc as the canine taken from Williams and reached out to the homeless man, who immediately ran over to pick him up.
“I want to cry,” Williams said as a flurry of emotions crashed over him. “I know God is real, because I’m in a big city, and in a big city like New York, you know, you may not find your dog. I ain’t think I was going to get him back. He’s the only family that I have.”
Williams has owned Roc since April 2024. The American Bully will be turning 2 in October, the proud dog owner said.
“He’s been holding me down for the past year and a half,” Williams said. “He’s all I have. He depends on me. I depend on him, and I feel like I let him down.”
“But don’t worry, it’ll never happen again,” he vowed.
Williams lost his job as a restaurant chef at Kennedy Airport and his apartment in the Bronx about a mile from the precinct at the same time and has been homeless for about a month.
In order to beat the sweltering heat on Saturday night, Williams took Roc into the transit system. The two rode the rails on the D train all night, he told the Daily News.
“Trains have a little bit of air on them,” he said. “I wanted to keep cool. I got on the train at Yankee Stadium. And we rode all the way to Brooklyn, all the way back to the Bronx, all the way back to Coney Island, and all the way back.”
During a return trip back up to the Bronx on Sunday morning while at the W. Fourth St. station in Manhattan, the dognapper entered Williams’ subway car and sat right across from him.
“Roc was sitting under me,” Williams recalled. “[The other guy] was looking at him, you know, making little eyes at him. I paid no attention.”
A short time later, Williams leaned his head next to the side of the subway car and “dozed off,” he said.
As the train headed toward its last stop, the crook leaned over, began petting Roc, unclasped his leash and took the dog without waking Williams, said the homeless man, who was later shown surveillance footage of the dastardly dognapping from inside the subway car.
“I woke up at 205th St. with just the leash in my hand,” the heartbroken dog owner said. “The last time I remember looking at my dog was 161st St.”
“I haven’t ate anything since Saturday because I haven’t had an appetite,” he told The News.
When Williams showed up at the 44th Precinct, his heart leapt as he immediately recognized Roc.
“He’s the only Bully in the Bronx,” he said proudly. “There’s a lot of Bullies out here in New York City, but no Bully has his markings. He’s the only Bully that’s that color.”
More importantly, Roc recognized Williams as soon as he stepped into the stationhouse.
“He heard my voice and he stood up. I said, ‘Roc!’ He started crying,” the proud dog owner recounted. “This is my boy. He knows Daddy, and Daddy knows him!”
American Bullies share common ancestry with pit bulls but are generally more laid back in temperament.
The at-large thief could be looking for a new dog, Williams feared.
“For all dog owners, just take care of your babies. Watch over your babies,” he warned. “People are stealing babies. It is stupid. Who takes a dog?”
Despite the brutal heat wave, Williams and Roc were sleeping outside before the dognapping and will keep on doing so now, since Roc isn’t officially registered as a support dog.
“Me and Roc has been out on the street, parks, staircases, rooftops over the past month, because I can’t get in the shelter with him, because he’s not officially a support dog, but I got him for emotional support,” Williams said. “I think that shelters should lift their laws for dogs, you know, especially when it’s a nice dog… he’s not a vicious dog, he’s a very loving dog.”
So the two will tough it out together, he vowed, saying, “It was me and him. It’ll be me and him. Ride it out till the wheels fall off.”
Williams did sleep in a shelter during the nights Roc was missing, but having his best buddy back is more important to him than a comfortable night’s sleep.
Meanwhile, Animal Care Centers of NYC recently reached its capacity for sheltering animals for the first time in its history, with the organization chalking it up partly to the city’s housing affordability crisis and homelessness. Williams, though, said he’ll never abandon Roc, no matter what.
“To some of us,” he said, “our animals aren’t just pets, they’re family. And my dog’s not just my pet. He’s my family. He’s like my son”
“I’m not giving my dog up. He helps me cope.”
Anyone with information on the thief is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
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