Stolen, sold and retrieved

CARY -- Andrea Sexton's 16-week-old golden retriever, LuLu, was returned Thursday under a cloud of mystery over where the pup had been for more than a week.

But none of that mattered, Sexton said.

"I think there's a lot of questions that have not been answered, but I got my puppy back, and that's what matters to me," she said Friday evening from her home, still doting over the recently returned pup. "I think the police can take it from here."

A burglar who broke into Sexton's East Cornwall Road home on Jan. 14 took LuLu, purchased last month to fill a void left by the death of Sable, a 13-year-old husky/black lab mix who succumbed to cancer in April. The thief also got away with jewelry, a laptop computer and a digital camera.

Sexton said she spent hours over the last 10 days plastering her neighborhood with posters of the pup, sprawled out on the floor, wearing a pink collar. If a friend called with a LuLu sighting in another neighborhood, signs went up there, too.

But LuLu's travels may have taken her many miles from home.

Thursday, Sexton received a call from a woman who said she thought she had the missing dog at her home. The woman gave only her first name -- Betty -- but told of how her sister had purchased the dog for $50 at a gas station in Angier.

Betty, Sexton said, said her sister couldn't keep up with the dog and turned it over to her as a gift this week.

When Sexton and a neighbor arrived at the woman's apartment off Wren Road, they were led to a room where the dog and two small children had been sequestered.

"When [Betty] opened the door, we saw [LuLu] and we just knew it was her," Sexton said. "She saw me and ran to me. She'd grown a bit, but it was still that same old face."

LuLu has had a microchip embedded in her skin to help in case she disappears again. She also got a new collar.

Other items taken from the home have not been found. Anyone with information on the case is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 226-2746, Capt. Dave Wulff at 469-4017, or visit www.carycrimestoppers.net.