Earlier this week, Boston was briefly riveted by the tale of a stolen SUV which contained a yellow lab named Chief. Thankfully, the SUV was found a day later, with Chief alive inside it. The thief had even cracked a window and left a bowl of water.

Chief is on the left, with an unknown friend on the right

What gets me is the thief’s story, which includes this:

The man accused of stealing a woman’s SUV with her dog inside on Sunday said he walked the dog three times and fed it three times, police said.

That just sounds like an awful lot of work. It seems safe to assume the SUV was stolen for either convenience or pleasure, and taking care of a stranger’s unexpected dog is certainly at odds with both of those motives.