Photo Credit: Karsten Winegeart
The woman who returned Lady Gaga’s stolen French bulldogs is now suing the pop singer. She says the $500,000 reward went unpaid after the dogs were returned.
The singer’s dogs, Koji and Gustav, were stolen in February 2021, resulting in the dog walker being shot. At least five people were arrested in connection with the robbery, including Jennifer McBride—who returned the dogs. The Los Angeles police department determined the woman had a pre-existing relationship with the father of one of the men arrested for the robbery.
Lady Gaga reportedly offered a $500,000 ‘no questions asked’ reward for the return of her dogs. Now McBride is suing Lady Gaga over the reward in a lawsuit first obtained by BuzzFeed News. The lawsuit alleges that the singer made a promise “without intent to perform.” The lawsuit also claims McBride experienced “pain and suffering, mental anguish, and loss of enjoyment of life as a result of not receiving the $500,000 reward.”
McBride is seeking no less than $1.5 million in damages, including compensation for her legal fees.
“It was clear from the evidence presented to the grand jury that Ms. McBride knew the dogs have been stolen in a violent robbery in which Ryan Fischer had been grieviously injured,” Michele Hanisee, a deputy district attorney in Los Angeles told NBC News. “It was also clear from the evidence that McBride had known at least two of her co-conspirators for years.”
In December 2022, James Howard Jackson received a 21-year prison sentence for shooting Fischer with a handgun during the robbery. The other three men arrested in connection with the robbery then made off with the dogs. McBride pleaded no contest to receiving stolen property from the theft and was sentenced to two years’ probation. Now the woman has filed this lawsuit accusing Lady Gaga of fraud by false promise and misrepresentation for the reward statement she made to the press.