Puppies Returned Safely To Woman After Being Stolen

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Two puppies were safely returned to their owner late Tuesday, after they were stolen from her cart while she shopped in Manhattan.

Suzette Bonsignore posted on Facebook late Tuesday night that the puppies had been found thanks to a Facebook tip.

Bonsignore had been raising the 8-week-old Yorkies Mario and Mimi since birth, CBS2's Hazel Sanchez reported.

Late Tuesday, Bonsignore and a man from the group Guardians of Rescue were directed to a home, where the homeowner said a couple had approached him and offered him two young Yorkie puppies.

"Knowing nothing of the theft just a few moments before, he accepted and happily brought them home to his wife," Guardians of Rescue said on Facebook. "We are so thankful to have informed them of what happened and that they gladly handed over the babies."

Bonsignore had been frantic earlier in the day.

"Please return my puppies. I miss them. I love them and I need them so badly back in my life," Bonsignore said earlier. "It's a part of my family, and that's what makes this really heart-wrenching and devastating."

Bonsignore said she had been shopping at an Upper East Side Bed Bath & Beyond on Monday when she placed her two pups -- zipped up in a black dog carrier -- in the seat of her shopping cart.

She said she turned her back for a brief moment.

"I looked at something and somebody at that time grabbed my bag and took off," she said. "I thought someone had taken my wagon by mistake. So I ran to the front door and the guy said somebody's running down the street with the bag so I ran after them."

Bonsignore said she saw the young woman carrying her bag, but she couldn't keep up with them.

"I never had children. These were my children," she said.