Dog inside carjacked vehicle dies day after being reunited with owner

MATTHEWS, N.C. — Michelle Rodriguez was running errands at a Matthews shopping center Wednesday afternoon when she was carjacked at knifepoint.

The thief took off from the Big Lots parking lot on Independence Boulevard with her black four-door Chevrolet Avalanche, along with a brindle and white boxer dog.

“I was just shocked. I didn’t know what to do,” Rodriguez told Channel 9.

Rodriguez said she begged the man to let the dog go.

“All these ladies were screaming and trying to help me. I just lost it,” she said.

Rodriguez’s 8-year-old daughter left her watch -- which has a tracking device -- in the truck.

The watch helped authorities track down the thief, who was arrested nearly an hour away in Rowan County. Police were also able to recover the truck and the dog.

A second man was also arrested.

“My husband told me, ‘Eliana's watch,'” Rodriguez said. “We all have technology that we can track, but this, this is the address that they stopped at finally.”

Keri Brandun Camps, 27, and Curtis David White, 49, were placed in the Rowan County jail.

On Thursday, Channel 9 learned the dog, Sissy, died after being reunited with the family. It is still unclear how the animal died and Animal Care and Control said they would investigate.

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