A COUPLE have been reunited with their stolen pooch after a military-style search involving tracker dogs and all-night stakeouts.

Genie, a three-year-old lurcher, was taken from her owner’s van parked at the South Essex Wildlife Hospital, in Orsett Road, Orsett.

Just two hours later, a witness reported seeing her run out of Hovefields Avenue, Wickford, on to the A127 where she was struck by a car.

The pooch rolled over three times, but still managed to run off and disappear, according to the witness who contacted the organisation Doglost.

Nearly a week after she went missing, owners Gwain Theobald, 38, and his wife Kate, 29, used all their detective skills to track her down.

Following an appeal for her return in the Echo, the couple put up eight banners across bridges on major routes where sightings were reported, including the A13, A127 and A130.

With the help of Doglost they also mounted a search, using tracker dogs which attempted to pick up her scent.

Gwain also spent two nights in a van on the A13, following a false-alarm sighting near the South Essex Wildlife Hospital, where Kate works and where the dog was stolen from.

On the second morning of his vigil, he received a call from a shift worker at 6am, who had seen Genie loose in a field near the A127 and A130 junction.

The couple raced to site within half an hour and found the missing animal.

Kate said: “We were over the moon. She was still in the area where the first sighting was.

“She was bruised, which confirmed she had been hit by the car. She was very thin and dehydrated as well.

“The shift worker refused our reward of £250 and said give it to charity so it is going to the animal hospital where I work which helped me with the banners.”