Driver Allegedly Intentionally Hits Puppy, Police Say Vet Bills Are On The Dog’s Owner

*for those interested in helping the Meza family cover the medical expenses for little Elvis, please check out the GoFundMe listed here*

CHICAGO HEIGHTS, IL – Earlier in August, a 6-month-old Shiba Inu was reportedly struck by a driver in a residential neighborhood in Chicago Heights, with the driver having allegedly struck the dog intentionally as the dog’s owner watched. To make matters worse, local authorities reportedly informed the dog’s owner that he was liable for the vet bills and potentially on the hook for damages to the driver’s vehicle if the driver were to pursue such an action.

Rudy Meza is the owner of the little Shiba Inu, Elvis, at the center of this controversial incident. We at The Breakdown News had an opportunity to speak with Meza, who stated the incident occurred at approximately 6:00 p.m. on August 11th while little Elvis was outside using the restroom.

“We were out in our front yard that is not fenced since the city didn’t allow us a permit to fence off the front of the house. Eventually, Elvis started doing his ‘zoomies,’ basically running around, and somehow his leash came off the collar. It happened once before, and I usually go into my car and go to the front – or wherever he is – and open my door and he instantly comes inside the car.”

Little Elvis had apparently made his way onto the street, which Meza described as a low-traffic residential road, and Meza and his wife were about to fetch the little guy until the unexpected happened.

“So, this beat up dark blue Nissan Altima with two Hispanic males are on the road…they see Elvis and proceed to slow down; I’m thinking ‘Ok they’re going to let us grab him.’ As soon as Elvis gets close to the car, the driver – an older man – looks my wife directly in the eyes and floors it, hitting Elvis and sending him flying a few feet and yelping.”

Meza and his wife were able to obtain the license plate of the man driving the Altima and contacted police in order to file a report, assuming that what they’d just witnessed certainly would be considered criminal. However, the duo was shocked by what local law enforcement told them shortly after their arrival.

“Three officers [initially] came, one took our statement and was generally nice and seemed to care, but the other two that went to the perpetrator’s home came back later and cut the officer off that was taking our statement down and said, ‘It’s alright, he’s saying something else, he said all he heard was a thud and kept going.’ Then [the officer] proceeded to tell the cop basically to forget our statement because ‘the other guy answered the door for us, he was polite, and very cordial and answered all our questions.’”

According to Meza, this same officer then proceeded to tell Meza’s pregnant wife that the man behind the wheel of the Altima was “not gonna be liable for the vet bill if that’s what you guys wanted, in fact you guys would be held liable for any damages your dog did to his car.”

Meza, a 30-year-old law student, claims the officer in question seemed a bit too pleased with relaying the disheartening news, describing the officer as harboring a “smirk on his face” during the entire interaction. The distraught family tried reiterating that what they’d witnessed appeared not only intentional, but seemingly targeted in sense when taking into consideration the eye contact before the driver hit the gas.

In a desperate attempt to convey what the family witnessed; Meza presented some hypotheticals to the officers to see if they could treat the matter as a potential criminal act.

“[The officers] were talking about codes and laws, so I told them ‘I know, I’m a law student.’ So I gave them a scenario, ‘So what if I was driving down the street and a dog was in the street and I slow down but then speed up to intentionally hit it,’ [to which] the smirky cop’s partner cut me off, and with an attitude, said, ‘Well that would make you a fucking asshole, I thought you were a law student.’”

The officer reportedly told Meza that the abovementioned scenario doesn’t matter because his “dog didn’t belong in the street since it’s for cars only,” which led to Meza emphasizing that the same logic can be applied to the likes of jaywalkers or bicyclists in improper lanes, but intentionally hitting (or even unintentionally, in some cases) either or would be treated as a criminal matter.

However, no matter how the Meza family pleaded their case, the officers claimed there was nothing they could/would do as they intended to classify it as a civil traffic matter, leaving the residence after conveying their reached conclusion.

After the brief interaction with officers, the family took Elvis to a local vet to get him checked out, noting in a GoFundMe regarding the incident that the family “had to borrow money just so he could get seen” by the veterinarian that evening.

Finances has been a bit tough for Meza’s family as of late, as Meza was only recently placed on short-term disability benefits following a work injury and candidly described himself as basically being “broke.” With the estimated vet bills hovering around a couple thousand dollars, Meza is worried he won’t be able to afford the care Elvis needs to pull through.

The closing paragraph in Meza’s GoFundMe relays this very sentiment, reading, “He’s only 6 months old and my wife, son, and I love him like he’s part of the family. Losing him would be devastating to our family. I know I won’t get much, or anything at all, but I’d figured I’d try, since I would do anything for my baby boy, Elvis. Thank you.”