She added: “Today has just been a nightmare and I’m happy that he’s okay.”
The dog walker’s abandoned Ford van was found on Wesley Avenue, just 2.4 miles from where the dogs were left.
After a day of desperately searching for all the missing dogs, Mr Holte-Smith said he was happy that others will “learn” from his mistake of leaving the van unattended with the dogs inside.
It took only three minutes for him to leave his van with keys in the ignition to knock on his sister-in-law’s door, before the thief in a passing by car noticed the empty van and took the opportunity to speed off with it.
“You know, for somebody else to learn through somebody’s mistake, I’m happy to walk those steps,” he said.
The dogs stolen in the heist
- Cabbage – Collie, 15, owned by Rory Cellan-Jones
- Bouka – German Shepherd owned by Alexandra Psillakis, 32, that was rescued from a wheelie bin in Athens in 2010 after Alex had a night out. She is 11 years old and “because she’s a rescue dog she doesn’t like strangers”
- Bafi – a cockapoo, aged three
- Sam – Light brown Labrador aged 12
- Toby – a beagle aged between nine and 12
- Bbua – a beagle aged between seven and nine
Speaking about Cabbage earlier in the day and before she was found, Mr Cellan-Jones said: “She’s really old. She was a rescue dog from The Dogs Trust. We got her in 2007. She was very nervous.
“Friends said ‘you’re mad to get a collie’ because they need so much exercise.
“And actually, it’s been brilliant. Especially for me. I still run with her. And now we’re both slowing down for various reasons.
“She’s slowed right down. She’s half blind. She’s quite deaf. She walks very slowly now. But she’s still gets three walks a day.”
