The curious case of the dog in the car

Mystery surrounds a Whanganui East woman's discovery of her smashed car window and a dog sitting in the back seat.

The dog's owner died last year, and an animal control officer said it was not known where the dog has been since, or how it ended up in the car.

Car owner Kataraina Cobain does not know if whoever smashed the window put the dog inside - there are scratch marks underneath and above the window, but the dog had no fresh injuries from broken glass.

Stranger still, nothing was stolen from the car, despite handbags, a cellphone, an MP3 player, a head unit, and a Navman being inside the car.

"I got up and went out to my car, which is parked outside my house on the road," Cobain said.

"I first noticed that the window was broken."

The dog's owner died last year and it is not known where the dog has been since. Photo / supplied

When she went to unlock the car, she spotted the dog, which looked like it had recently had puppies.

Cobain said the dog was "not aggressive, sort of just like more, like, happy to see me".

"She just looked tired, I felt sorry for her."

She called animal control to collect the dog.

"The animal control guy said that he doesn't think that whoever smashed the window put the dog in there, only because there was scratch marks on the roof and scratch marks under the window."

The officer told her the dog had injuries on its back, but they did not look fresh. It did not look like the dog had been in the car overnight as it hadn't made a mess.

Cobain posted a photo of the dog in the car on the Buy Sell Swap Wanganui Facebook page on Tuesday, and later received a text message from an unknown number saying "Got my dog bitch".

The person told Cobain they wanted the dog back, to which she replied the dog was at the pound.

The person said "I'll be back tonight", and Cobain told the person to "f*** up".

"You will be," they replied.

Cobain did not know what the comment meant, and despite trying to ring the number, has had no luck.

She said her phone number was new and she had only given it out to a few people, so didn't know how the person got her number.

Facebook users also tried calling the number and reportedly reached a "girl", who hung up upon realising what they were calling about.

"I don't know anyone who wants to go out of their way to take time out of their day to do this to me," Cobain said.

"I still can't get my head around it."

She said she couldn't be bothered reporting the incident to the police.

"I know that I should but whoever it was, they haven't been back."

The council's animal management team leader Jo Meiklejohn said the dog's owner died last year, and they did not know where it had been since.

"We ask that the person who has taken ownership of the dog please contact our animal management team on 349 0001 so the dog can be reunited with her home," a spokeswoman said.