Lady Tries to Mail Live Puppy

Last Tuesday, employees at a downtown Minneapolis post office were clutching their pearls when a woman attempted to mail a 4-month-old poodle-Schnauzer mix named "Guess" (pictured) in a box that was wrapped entirely in packing tape that covered air holes.

The woman, Stacey Champion, who lives a few blocks away, paid $22 for her puppy to be sent to Georgia by priority mail, said Thompson Ojoyeyi, supervisor at the Loring Station post office. Ojoyeyi said that a clerk asked Champion the standard questions about the box's contents, which was being shipped as a gift: whether there was anything perishable, liquid, hazardous, etc. She responded no. However, "she did tell the clerk that the package may make some sounds because it contained a toy robot," said Postal Service spokesman Peter Nowacki. Ojoyeyi recalled that the woman cautioned postal workers to " 'be careful, be careful' " as they handled the box because "it was so delicate." After Champion left, the workers noticed that the box was moving. "People were kind of really scared," Ojoyeyi said. "It was really moving. We tried to listen, and the thing was breathing. And the way it was breathing, we knew it was likely to be a puppy." Postal workers contacted the postal inspectors -- the Postal Service's enforcement arm -- because they needed approval to open priority mail. Once getting the OK, the box was opened and the "black and very small" dog was discovered, Ojoyeyi said.

But it gets better. After postal inspectors contacted Stacey, 39, she demanded the return of the $22 she paid in postage and "a small amount of paper currency she had attached to a makeshift collar around the dog's neck." Those demands were not met and she was charged with animal cruelty. Mailing dogs is illegal; plus, the dog (pictured, above) would've died during its 900-mile journey to Atlanta in an airplane's unheated and non-pressurized cargo hold.

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Update: During a court hearing, Stacey said the post office didn't make it clear as to can and can't be mailed. She also admitted that she told the postal worker the package (pictured, below) contained a "toy robot" intended as a birthday gift for a little boy in Atlanta. Also, she asked to have the dog back. The judge said no and it will be up for adoption in five days.