Retired Marine credits smuggled dog from Iraq with alerting him to thieves

A retired Marine officer is crediting the dog he smuggled home from Iraq with alerting him this morning that two thieves were trying to burglarize his wife’s car outside their La Jolla home.

Retired Lt. Col. Jay Kopelman said the 4-year-old dog, Lava, began growling and barking about 2 a.m. When Kopelman went outside to investigate, he saw two men inside his wife’s Subaru looking for items to steal. After running inside to grab a cellular phone, Kopelman followed the men in his car and called police.

Police arrested Joseph Anthony Verdugo, 29, and Leonard Eric Williams, 40, on burglary and drug charges, officials said. Williams has a felony warrant for a drug offense, officials said. While police officials discourage crime victims from attempting to make arrests, they said Kopelman acted properly by immediately calling police and letting them handle the apprehension.

Kopelman found Lava in Fallouja when the dog was a “flea-ridden mutt” and, against military rules, smuggled him home with the help of Marines, reporters and Iraqis. The tale is explored in his book, “From Baghdad, With Love.”

Kopelman is now executive director of the nonprofit Freedom Is Not Free foundation, which helps military personnel who have been wounded and the families of those who have been killed. He said he plans a steak dinner for Lava as a reward.

“This is the most fun I’ve had since I left Fallouja,” he said.

-- Tony Perry

Photo: Retired Lt. Col. Jay Kopelman and Lava in 2005. Credit: Don Kelsen / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[A Latino in 90041]

This is a small story when you compare it to the detailed adventures for the people and dog, "Lava." as related in the book, From Baghdad With Love. The policy for dogs must have changed since then, since Lt.Col. Kopelman's book showed so many personal examples of people helping to save Lava and get him back to the States, along with letting us in on the lives of our military and civilians in the midst of a war. The impact of that puppy on the people he encountered was profound.

Lava was a "found" dog; a stray puppy, not a military dog. In Vietnam, nearly all the war dogs, conisdered simply "property," were barred from coming back with their handlers, euthanized, or plainly, "killed", or left for the ARVN to manage and probably still be killed; many had a bounty on them posted by the enemy.

I hope our military has become enlightened now. It's interesting that the book, while mainly about a dog, clearly showed the military's rigidity with it's policies, along with the simple humanity of numerous persons in the war zone who helped get a just result for the dog and Lt. Col. Kopelman.

[steve rodriguez]

I hope the dog did not use torture or make the thieves feel even the least bit uncomfortable!
If he did not use torture and was consoling to the thieves, he is qualified to work for the CIA.

[The Real News]

Iraq's Prime Minister Wednesday called on all Arab and Muslim countries to cut their ties with Israel, calling the Israeli military attacks on Gaza "a dreadful crime," according to a press statement. Nouri al-Maliki said that "we ask Arab countries and all Muslims to cancel their diplomatic relations and stop all contacts - private and public - with this murderous regime, which continues its painful aggression against peaceful, unarmed civilians."

"There are disputes worldwide, but to reach this degree of crime, which kills children and women is unacceptable. The international silence is very disturbing to us, we hope the international community and the Security Council would take fast decisions, clear and explicit to stop the massacres against the Palestinian people," he added.

The Premier's statements came a day after Israeli attacks on three schools run by the United Nations in the Gaza Strip, including one that killed more than 46 civilians.

Since Israel began operations on Gaza more than 10 days ago some 680 Palestinians have been killed.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/249330,iraqs-prime-minister-calls-on-arab-states-to-cut-ties.html