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Dog taken hostage by blackmailers seeking gun
Wednesday, 23 July 2008
MELBOURNE - Two men who stole a pet dog and threatened to kill it unless the owner gave them a gun have pleaded guilty to blackmail.

Michael Poock (Poock) received a call on March 19 from his distressed partner, who had returned to their Melbourne home to find the front window forced open and Kimba, their Maltese terrier, missing.

She found a ransom note on a napkin demanding an unregistered handgun and ammunition if they wanted Kimba returned alive.

"Failure to comply or police contact and THERES NO HOPE FOR YOUR DOG (sic)," read the note, tendered in a police summary to the Melbourne Magistrates Court today.

In the note, Scott Wilson, 18, and Andrew Davidson, 46, demanded Mr Poock wrap the gun in a towel and place it in a bin that night at a football ground in East Ringwood.

Davidson believed Mr Poock, a former workmate, owned a gun.

Davidson, from Forest Hill, pleaded guilty to the theft of Kimba and his blanket, and to blackmail.

Wilson, from Croydon, pleaded guilty to the dog theft, blackmail and burglary.

In a witness statement tendered to the court, Mr Poock said his partner rang him to say the dog was missing from their East Ringwood home.

"She said she had found the front window forced open and our dog was gone," Mr Poock said.

"(She) showed me a beige-coloured napkin that demanded a handgun and ammunition for the return of our dog."

Mr Poock contacted police who told him to meet the men at the oval but to wrap a heavy object in the towel instead of a gun.

Wilson and Davidson were arrested a short time after they collected the towel.

Kimba was returned to Mr Poock unharmed.

The men will appear in the Melbourne County Court for a pre-sentence hearing on December 5.

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