"Apparently they just took her off the lead and walked her up Coleridge St towards Williamson Ave."
Ms May said she and her partner Karl bought Misty on Christmas Day.
"She was actually quite sick when we got her so we've spent the past week nursing her back to health and she's just gotten better and now these people have stolen her.
"I'm kind of freaking out, mainly because I don't think they'll be able to look after her properly.
"I think these kids are stupid. They've just gone and picked up a puppy, a puppy that hasn't even hasn't even had its flu shots."
Ms May said she had lived in Grey Lynn her entire life and used to tie her previous dog outside the same supermarket without problem.
"I made the mistake of trusting the suburb I that live in really ... I want my dog back."
Auckland police spokeswoman Kimberley Mathews said police had received an initial description of the suspects and would be making inquiries in the area in an attempt to track them down.
"We also hope to receive CCTV footage from Countdown to assist with this. While these types of incidents do happen from time to time, we are not experiencing anything we would consider to be a 'dog-napping epidemic'."
Auckland SPCA executive director Bob Kerridge said reports late last year about dogs being stolen to be used as "bait" in dog fighting rings were unfounded.
"We obviously did some investigating and we could see no proof of what was suggested in that report.
"We haven't had a report of a dog fight situation for over two years."
Reports of dog-napping were more common in South Auckland, Mr Kerridge said.
Pedigree dogs were often stolen for money and some were stolen to order, however that was less likely with mixed-breed dogs, he said.
