'She's Part Of My Soul:' Woman Pleads For Return Of Stolen Dog

SANTA ANA (CBSLA) — A Santa Ana woman is pleading for the return of her Yorkie after thieves stole her vehicle with the dog inside.

"I adore her. She's part of my soul. And I don't have a soul any more," Lee Shakespeare said of her beloved 15-year-old Yorkie, Bella.

"I cry a lot because I just want her back. They can have the money. I don't care. I just want her back," she said.

Shakespeare says it was mid-January when a friend parked his Toyota Highlander directly in front of her Santa Ana townhome. They placed Bella inside, left the keys in the ignition and walked back in to grab her leash. That's when she says thieves in a 2008 Cherokee Laredo pulled up and stole the Toyota Highlander with Bella inside.

"I can't conceive something happening to her when I was gone two minutes from the car. Two minutes. I believe someone was watching because no one can come up in a two minute span and take her," she said.

Shakespeare called police. The SUV turned up the next day in a vacant parking stall across the street. Some items were missing but Bella was nowhere in sight. The Yorkie survived surgery for cancer last year. Shakespeare is worried about her health.

"[I] just want to know where she is, if she's OK," she said.

Now, she's posting flyers all over her neighborhood and on Twitter and Facebook, hoping Bella is still alive and someone turns her in.

"Nothing else is important except getting her back before her health might deteriorate. I don't want that to happen," she said.