From Gloucestershire Police:

We are pleased to update that five month old Brindle Lurcher puppy Moth has been returned to his owner today, Monday 12 July.

Moth’s owner received a phone call this morning which stated that the puppy had been found walking stray in Evesham by a postman who called the number on his tag and left him with a local resident.

His owner travelled to Worcestershire and he has now been taken home.

A number of appeals were issued over the weekend to help locate Moth and two women were arrested in connection with the investigation before being released on police bail.

The Constabulary and investigating officers would like to thank everyone who shared our social media appeals, these received a combined total of 6,400 shares on Facebook and 508 retweets on Twitter.

There are a number of precautions that you can take to protect your dog including DNA profiling. For more information on this new method please visit: https://www.gloucestershire.police.uk/…/gloucestershir…/

Police were originally contacted on Friday with a report of a suspected dog theft the day before.

It was reported that Moth had disappeared after escaping from a premises before being sighted in the car park of Morrison’s at 3.30pm on Thursday.

CCTV enquiries showed that two people in a blue transit van took the dog in before driving away, the puppy had not been seen since.

The investigation is continuing at this time.