WTEN: Albany, New York News, Weather, Sports - Animal control officer may have killed dogs
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A Hoosick woman's dogs are gone and state police tell NEWS10 the town animal control officer may have had something to do with it.
But this is not your typical dog catcher story. That officer is facing charges for misconduct.
Animal control officer Matt Beck may not be talking, but state police are. They tell NEWS10 that Beck is facing charges after they say he likely killed two dogs, disposed of their remains and then forged state documents to cover his tracks.
April Stevens told NEWS10 of the connection she had with her dogs, and the possibility of what happened to them.
They were my first, like before I had kids," She said, "Like my three-year-old and they were four. I have two boys and they were my two girls. So, it kind of definitely is disturbing to me."
Stevens says last month her three dogs got loose and only one returned. She searched feverishly for them, putting up posters before contacting Hoosick animal control officer Matt Beck.
She says Beck told her he had pick up two dogs, but they were of a different breed and returned them to their rightful owner. His story then began to unravel after a woman who handed the dogs over to Beck saw Stevens' flyer at a local Stewart's.
Farin Harris says the dogs found shelter in her barn. They had no identification collars so she called police. Police, in turn, sent out animal control officer Matt Beck, who picked up the dogs. Weeks later, Harris saw Stevens' flyer.
Harris told NEWS10, "(I) Took the number down, looked at it more closely and was like, ‘That's them,' and I was like, ‘That's impossible.'"
She called Stevens, describing the dogs to a tee and insisted that Beck picked them up.
"[She asked] was it Matt Beck? And I said yeah, and she was like, ‘No, I already called [Beck], he doesn't have them, he has different dogs,'" Harris recalled.
Stevens tells NEWS10, "It makes me disgusted that [Beck] gave me such a runaround for two weeks when he knew the first day I contacted him that he did something with my dogs,"
NEWS10's Anya Tucker went to Beck's house on Wednesday. When she asked him about the story, he would only tell our cameras, "No, I can't say anything at this time."
NEWS10 called the town of Hoosick and they said that Beck is still on the job, picking up more pets as the town's animal control officer.
"I want to know where my dogs are. Dead or alive or whatever, I still want them brought home," Stevens said.
