Featured Image Credit: Lady Gaga/Instagram
Topics: True crime, Crime, Lady Gaga, Celebrity, Film and TV
Katherine Sidnell
Topics: True crime, Crime, Lady Gaga, Celebrity, Film and TV
A woman who returned Lady Gaga’s stolen French bulldogs is now suing the singer over the $500,000 reward.
The singer’s beloved bulldogs Kojo and Gustavo were originally stolen on February 24 2021, as dog walker Ryan Fischer walked them in West Hollywood.
He’d been caring for the animals while Lady Gaga was filming House of Gucci in Italy.
During the violent robbery, he was shot four times as thieves made their escape, leaving him with critical injuries including a collapsed lung.
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Although he survived and the dogs were returned two days later by Jennifer McBride, she was later charged in connection with the robbery and as an accessory to the attempted murder.
McBride had initially claimed she’d found the dogs tied to a pole.
However, her attorney is now arguing that Gaga had made a ‘no questions asked offer’ when she sought the public’s help and should still pay McBride the reward.
The 50-year-old woman is suing the A Star is Born actor for the unpaid reward, according to court documents from the Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Her attorney argued that Gaga had committed fraud when she failed to pay, with the lawsuit stating that Gaga had ‘the intent to defraud and induce members of the public, such as Plaintiff’ and that she made 'a promise without intent to perform'.
It also claimed McBride had received ‘mental anguish’ and had ‘suffered’.
At the time of her arrest, McBride had been dating fellow accomplice Harold White whose son, Jaylin, had also been involved in the crime.
The Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement that ‘detectives were able to establish McBride had a relationship [with] Harold White’ and that they were ‘determined to be accessories after the initial crime’.
She was later found guilty of receiving stolen property and was sentenced to two years of probation in late December 2022.
Meanwhile, Jaylin White was sentenced to four years in state prison for his part in the robbery which left Fischer in hospital.
The dog walker would later have part of his lung removed and spent much of his recovery at Gaga’s home afterwards.
In a statement during the sentencing, he told the court that the incident caused made him go into debt and lose friendships.
UNILAD has contacted Lady Gaga's representatives for comment.