Tinley Woman, Golden Retriever Attacked By Pit Bull On Walk: Cops

TINLEY PARK, IL — A woman and her dog were attacked by a pit bull in Tinley Park Friday afternoon near 167th Street and Paxton Avenue, with both the woman and dog suffering injuries, police said.

According to the police report, around 3:24 p.m. Friday, the Tinley Park woman and her dog were attacked while out on a walk. The woman told police she tried to save her dog, Figaro, a 4-month-old golden retriever, after a pit bull charged at him, biting him and latching on to his neck. The police report said the pit bull's name is Roxy.

The woman tried to pry Roxy's jaws from Figaro's neck, and the pit bull then bit her, the police report states. As she fought to get the pit bull off her, the woman was dragged down the sidewalk, police said.

Roxy, described as a 6-year-old, 55-pound pit bull, eventually ran off, and the woman was left with bite marks on her right arm and scraped knees from being dragged during the attack, according to the police report.

A witness told police they saw the dog running to a blue pickup truck and managed to get a picture of the plate. The car was traced to a nearby residence, where a woman said Roxy and another dog belong to her son. According to the woman, the dogs were in the backyard of the home while she was packing for a trip. She said when she went to check on the dogs, they were gone and the back gate was open. The woman got in her vehicle to search for the dogs, when she saw one of the dogs running back towards her home. She was later informed by a neighbor that someone was bitten nearby and that it might have been one of her dogs.

The woman and her son showed up and told police the lock on the back gate is loose, and if the dogs hit it hard enough, it sometimes opens.

Patch reached out to the victim of the dog attack and did not receive a response. But on Friday and Saturday, she took to Facebook to document the aftermath of the attack on herself and her golden retriever. According to the woman's post, she was walking her dogs down 167th Street toward Paxton Avenue when she saw a young girl standing on a corner with dog leashes in her hand.

She wrote that she asked the girl what was going on, and the child told her she lost her friend's dog.

"I kind of scanned the area and saw them down Paxton across 167th and pointed them out," the woman who was bitten wrote.

"I also noticed they were large, pit bulls or pit bull mixes. I told her I could not help as I had my own dogs. She told me she couldn't cross the street and I suggested she go get an adult," the woman wrote on Facebook. "Next thing I knew, they were on us. The aggressive one got Figaro by the neck and I jumped in. It was a long fight and people started to come. Someone had a piece of wood..... I don't remember much, but the owner ended up there with a truck."

After the attack, the woman went to Silver Cross Hospital to have her wounds examined and get a rabies shot, according to her Facebook post. In another post, she said she took Figaro to the vet, where he had to get a staple in his neck, but he is "alive and that's all that matters."

The police report notes that Figaro the golden retriever was not fully vaccinated against rabies due to his young age, but listed a rabies tag ID number for Roxy, although neither dog had village dog tags on its collar. Police also said Roxy's owner was given the Cook County Animal Control bite report card, and was instructed to take his dog to the vet as soon as possible to be tested for rabies and then complete the bite report card.

Police reports indicate that tickets to the owner of the runaway dog could be issued by Animal Control, and are pending at this time. Patch also reached out to Animal Control for comment, but did not receive a response as of Tuesday afternoon.