February 3, 2008

Posted on February 3, 2019 by Joel Byers

On February 3, 2008, Grace Saenz-Lopez, the mayor of the Texas town of Alice, resigned after she was caught lying about her neighbor’s Shih Tzu. She had been asked to pet-sit the dog, Puddles, while they were on vacation. When they returned, Mayor Saenz-Lopez told them the dog had died and she had it buried. The family was distraught, but they believed her, since she was a family friend and the Mayor. A couple of weeks later, when a family member of the neighbors saw and heard a suspicious barking at a dog groomer’s, to their surprise, they found Puddles. When confronted, Mrs. Saenz-Lopez, said no, that wasn’t Puddles, instead, it was her dog, a newly purchased Shih Tzu, Panchito, a completely different dog from the dead Puddles. No, it was Puddles, and Mrs. Saenz-Lopez even tried to hide the dog at her twin sister’s house, fourteen miles away from Alice, Texas. The Mayor’s lies over the dog got so complicated, she even filed a false police report to say that Puddles was missing. To avoid questions about the dog, she even tried to claim to be her twin sister once when a reporter quizzed her about the pet theft, but when another reporter shouted, “Hey, Mrs. Mayor!” she turned around and looked at him, ruining her attempt at deception. Mrs. Saenz-Lopez claimed to do have taken the dog, and lie about its death, because her neighbors had mistreated it, and she was doing everything to save its life. Mrs. Saenz-Lopez stubbornly throughout this ordeal of her own making, tried to keep the dog, and even asked the judge to reward Puddles to her. At the end, Mrs. Saenz-Lopez was forced to resign as Mayor of Alice, Texas, return the purloined pet, pay a fine of $300, serve 48 hours of community service, and be on probation for two years. All that because someone wanted to keep a cute dog that wasn’t theirs.

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About Joel Byers

Born in North Georgia and educated at some very fine public institutions. Real education started after graduating from college and then getting married and raising two boys. Has the ability to see the funny and absurd in most things and will always remark on it, even if it means getting the stink-eye from his victims.
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