Mary McCord knows what it’s like to have her home invaded and precious items stolen. A few years ago she was outside cutting grass when someone entered her Mabry Street home through a side door and managed to take a few hundred dollars.

The traumatic experience made McCord more cautious and observant of any suspicious activities.

It also gave her the courage to take action when she saw that something was wrong.

A few weeks ago while McCord was home on her lunch break, she happened to look out a window and spotted two young boys walking into her neighbor’s backyard. She also saw a third boy near the front of the neighbor’s house acting as if he were a lookout.

“I knew no one was home,” McCord said. “I didn’t know the woman who lived there very well, but I’d never seen those boys before and had feeling they were not supposed to be there.”

McCord watched as the two boys in the yard called out to her neighbor’s pit bull puppy.

When the dog approached, the boys put a leash around its neck and began leading it from the yard.

“I opened the window and asked them what they were doing,” she said. “They said they were taking the dog to its owner. I knew that couldn’t be true because they were at the owner’s house.”

The boys began walking across the street with the dog. It was nearly time for McCord to return to work at the Drivers License Examiner’s Office, but she felt compelled to find out what they were up to.

“I went to the front door and yelled at them to bring the dog back. I told them I was going to call the police,” McCord said. “Two of the boys came up to me and said they weren’t with the other boy leading the dog. They told me the third boy lived across the river. Then they left again, heading down the street, and I started thinking ‘what can I do?'”

A few minutes later McCord got in her car and headed to back to work. She saw the boys walking along Third Avenue, near Summerfield Road, and started blowing her horn.

“I told them to take that dog back,” she said. “One of the boys claimed my neighbor was his grandmother. I didn’t know if that was true, but I asked them for their names.”

The boy claiming to be her neighbor’s grandson told McCord his name and the street he lived on, but she still wasn’t sure if she believed him.

That evening when she got off of work, McCord went to her neighbor’s house and asked if she had a grandson.

The neighbor, Anita Reese, said no. Not only that, Reese had not asked anyone to take the dog from her yard.

“The dog belonged to my son, who was in the process of moving to Birmingham,” Reese said. “I was taking care of it until he got settled.”

Reese said she had not even realized yet that the dog was missing until McCord came by.

“We had no clue that it had happened. This was the first time someone gave me any information,” she said.

Reese said she filed a police report, but didn’t believe the police would follow-up on the case.

“Young kids can say the truth sometimes when talking to adults,” Reese said. “I figured some of the things they said were true. My granddaughter’s mother lives on the same street one of the boys said he lived on. She told me she knew the boys and they were well known for stealing dogs all the time.”

After making a visit to that particular street and spending few days doing a little amateur detective work, Reese managed to track down her son’s dog and bring it back home.

“He acted a little strange a first, like he wasn’t sure what was going on, but now he’s back to normal,” she said.

The dog, named 50 Cent, is now living in Birmingham with her son and enjoying his happy puppy life.

“I think it is so good that someone would take the time to intervene,” Reese said. “She (McCord) could have just believe what those boys told her and not dong anything about it. Instead, she decided to be late for work in order to help someone she didn’t really know. The more people try to help their neighbor, the better off they will be. It will cut down on all the crime.”

McCord said she was just trying to be good neighbor and do what she could to prevent the Reese family from losing their dog.

“I’ve been through a burglary and if can prevent it from happening to someone else, I will try to. These kids are heading down the wrong path and maybe this taught them a lesson.”

McCord is now recently retired from the Drivers License Examiners Office, giving her time to keep an eye on her neighborhood and do her part to make Selma a little safer.