Online Pet Sitter Blamed For Feces-Filled Home, Trashed Car

GLENVIEW, IL — Officers investigating a man accused of fleeing police in a stolen car discovered that a pet sitter who was booked online is being blamed for a series of incidents that led to a possibly totaled car, stolen personal items and a trashed house that was left littered with marijuana, liquor and animal feces, according to police reports and the homeowner.

Prosecutors have yet to file criminal charges, but police in Morton Grove, Glenview and Skokie have opened investigations into what happened after a Glenview woman arranged to have a pet sitter from the online service Rover.com take care of Mazzie and Cashew, her two Shih Tzu dogs, and her two cats, Baghira and Radagast.

Margaret Leonard, 36, said she had hired the same 22-year-old Chicago woman to take care of her pets on two previous occasions over the past year when she has needed to be out of town or family or friends were unable to take care of her pets. But the third time — a week's vacation out of state ahead of Thanksgiving — was not the charm.

Around 8:30 p.m. Nov. 19 — the fourth day of Leonard's planned eight-day vacation — Morton Grove police noticed a man speeding east down Beckwith Road in Leonard's Volkswagen with no headlights on, according to a police report. An officer noticed him pass another driver on the right without signaling and turned on his emergency lights.

The driver refused to stop, instead making two quick turns before pulling over and ditching the car near Davis Street and Frontage Road in Skokie, police said. The man took off running, leaving the damaged car behind with a fully flat tire, police said. A K-9 from the Skokie Police Department was unable to track down anyone based on smells from the car, according to police. Leonard later said two tires on her car were left flattened, and she is waiting to learn whether it is totaled.

The next afternoon, two Morton Grove officers reported that no one answered when they showed up at the Glenview home of Leonard, the car's registered owner. It didn't appear that anyone had broken in, but a neighbor did recall recently seeing a group of unfamiliar people inside, according to police.

Leonard's neighbor called her shortly after being visited by police and told her what had happened and how they were investigating a case of fleeing and eluding, she told police. She then called the pet sitter to ask where her car was, and the sitter replied she wasn't sure but would call back when she returned to the house.

Leonard told Patch she did not give the pet sitter permission to use the car or loan it to anyone else. According to police, the sitter admitted she knew she was not authorized to allow others over to party or take Leonard's car.

Officers reported smelling marijuana before even entering Leonard's house at her request around 7:30 p.m. Nov. 20.

"Upon entering the residence, I could smell a strong odor of burned cannabis, as well as animal feces," a Glenview officer reported. "I observed animal feces in a pile by the side entrance and non-recoverable cannabis residue throughout the kitchen. I also observed open containers of alcohol scattered throughout the residence. Furthermore, I observed items of clothing and other miscellaneous property scattered throughout the home."

Morton Grove police described "loose cannabis" and "general trash" located throughout Leonard's house. Leonard said the closet had been ransacked and her home still "reeked" of marijuana and cigarette smoke upon her return.

Before they went into the house, officers had called the pet sitter and asked her to return to the home. She returned and cooperated with police, although some of her answers were "inconsistent," according to a police report.

On the first night Leonard was gone, the pet sitter explained, a 22-year-old former Niles resident she had allowed into the home had taken the car after 10 p.m. She told investigators she had told him not to, "but he laughed at her," police said. She also said she had left the man alone at the house with a minor while she worked another job from 5 to 9 p.m. that night.

The Morton Grove officer who initially tried to pull over Leonard's car learned the same car had been reported to Skokie police as a suspicious vehicle around 2:30 a.m. Nov. 17 on Mulford Street near the Oakton Community College parking lot, according to police. The car was gone when officers arrived, and no information about the incident was immediately available from Skokie police.

Investigators learned that the sitter had left the man alone in the house again on the night he is suspected of fleeing police in Leonard's car, according to police reports. The sitter said the man had gotten her to go look for the car near where he'd left it. They didn't find it, because police had already had it towed.

While dealing with police from two departments while still hundreds of miles away, Leonard said she was also trying to arrange with Rover.com's Trust and Safety team to ensure that someone else was available to take care of her pets. No one was available through the service on such short notice, she said.

So she called her vet at Lavitt Animal Hospital in Morton Grove, who personally came with his wife, picked up her pets while the police were in the house and boarded them at his clinic.

"I never heard anything from Rover — follow-up like, 'Did you find a sitter?' 'Did any of the sitters work out for you?' — nothing," Leonard said. When she asked to speak with a manager, she said the company's customer service representatives told her she would have to wait 72 hours.

Dave Rosenbaum, public relations manager for Rover, provided the following statement on behalf of the Seattle-based company.

"This is nowhere near the typical experience on Rover. We understand how frustrating this ordeal has been for Margaret and will continue to assist her. We have removed the sitter from our platform and are ready to work with law enforcement in any investigation. All sitters who offer their services through the Rover platform must pass a background check administered by a third party."

Leonard said the company should conduct regular background checks and offer better service in case of an emergency.

"My animals could have been dead by the time I got home, if something was really wrong," she said. "Luckily, my animals were terrified, but they're OK. No health damage."

The company has been responsive, Leonard said, "but the responses have been extremely cold, and not helpful and shown no interest in righting a wrong that someone did by their company."

The company guarantees to reimburse certain costs over $250 incurred during services it books when the sitter refuses to cover them. It promises up to $25,000 for veterinary care and up to $1 million for property damage or injuries.

There are some exclusions in the company's terms. Specifically not covered are: damage resulting from any loss "due to intentional or criminal acts, including theft" or any damage related to any vehicle, or any stolen cash, art, jewelry or "bric-a-brac." No matter what a sitter might steal, it would not be covered by the "Rover Guarantee."

"We encourage owners to work directly with sitters," company spokesperson Rosenbaum explained. "Sitters are independent contractors, not employees."

Leonard said Rover has so far only reimbursed her the money she paid to the sitter who left the house trashed. Rosenbaum noted company representatives were "still in communication with Margaret about reimbursements."