Man rescues dog from hot car in NE Albuquerque

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — It left him with two stitches and a tetanus shot, but Gerasimos Klonis said he would do it all over again.

Sunday afternoon he and his girlfriend were eating at Little Anita’s off University and Menaul. When they were leaving, Klonis said he heard a dog before he saw it.

“The dog is sticking its snout out of a one to two-inch crack trying to breathe,” he said. “It was obviously struggling to breathe.”

He said he was faced with a moral dilemma: to break the window and save the dog or wait for law enforcement?

He said his girlfriend called 911 to report it. After ten minutes, Klonis called 911 again. He said ten more minutes passed.

He said the dog was severely fatigued and trying to scratch its way out of the car. He told his girlfriend to record the incident, took a crowbar, smashed the window, and grabbed the dog.

Klonis said the owner came out minutes later, and police and animal welfare showed up. The dog was wearing a service vest, but the owner told animal welfare officers they didn’t know if it was allowed in the restaurant. That owner is now facing a charge for cruelty to animals.

Klonis said he hopes this reminds people to trust their gut.

“The longer I waited the more I was thinking about this moral dilemma to myself the more the answer became obvious to me because the dog was in clear distress,” he said.

While Klonis was afraid he would be the one facing trouble, Albuquerque police says it’s legal to break into a car to rescue a dog or a child.

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