A US soldier stationed at Fort Stewart, Georgia, is conducting a desperate international search for her beloved dog after a pet sitter allegedly gave conflicting stories about the animal's fate.
A Year-Long Deployment and a Broken Promise
Virginie Nguena was deployed to Poland for a year and needed someone to care for her one-year-old Pomeranian, Bingo. She found a sitter through an online advertisement and agreed to pay $500 every six months for the service. The sitter promised to send regular photos and videos and assured Nguena that Bingo would be spoiled.
Initially, the arrangement seemed sound. However, after just ten days, the updates stopped. The sitter then began requesting more money for food, claiming Nguena had not sent sufficient funds and that the dog was going hungry. This raised the soldier's first suspicions.
Vanishing Act and Changing Stories
Alarmed, Nguena informed the sitter she would send someone to collect Bingo by the end of the month. The sitter reportedly refused, saying "she got it." From that point, communication broke down. The sitter allegedly began changing her address, making it impossible for Nguena or her contacts to locate Bingo's whereabouts.
For five months, Nguena received no update on her dog. The sitter eventually claimed the white and brown Pomeranian had died, but Nguena does not believe this. "I literally don’t know where he is. She said so many different things and I don’t even know what is true at this point," Nguena told the Daily Mail.
A Soldier's Helplessness and a Plea for Help
Nguena, who remains deployed in Poland for another six months, feels powerless. She suspects the sitter may have sold Bingo, noting that Pomeranians can fetch between $600 and $6,000 from breeders. She has posted text message exchanges in local Facebook groups, repeatedly asking for the sitter's address to arrange a pick-up, even threatening to involve military police.
She has also contacted the Liberty County Sheriff's Office, but was informed it is considered a civil matter, leaving her with few official avenues. Her family in Texas were too far away to help initially. Now, Nguena is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to Bingo's safe return, hoping the public can help where authorities could not.
The Daily Mail has withheld the sitter's name as no criminal charges have been filed.
