Good Boy No More: Police Therapy Dog Steals Toys From a Charity Donation Bin

Stealing toys intended as charity donations is a bona fide way to end up on Santa’s naughty list ... unless you’re an extremely lovable golden retriever named Ben Franklin.

WHDH reports that the police department in Franklin, Massachusetts recently caught Ben Franklin, their therapy dog, trotting off with a baby doll in a carrier that he had swiped from a nearby classroom. It was part of a large haul of toys collected for the Santa Foundation, a local charity that delivers gifts to families in need around Christmastime.

An officer managed to capture the toynapping on video, which the police department shared on Facebook, so you can decide for yourself whether Ben still deserves to be known as a very good boy. In the video, he walks down the hall, looks back—presumably to see if he’s being pursued by law enforcement—then curls up beneath a desk with his treasure. There’s a stuffed animal under there, too.

In the Facebook post, the Franklin Police Department recommended that, if you happen to have a classroom full of charity toys, you should keep the toys elevated or simply close the door.

“If not, a golden retriever will slowly hoard them throughout the day and bring them back to his lair,” the post read.

The evidence is hard to ignore, but there’s always a chance that Ben's motives were pure. Maybe he didn’t realize that his owners had already planned to donate the toys to children and was taking it upon himself to spread the wealth, à la Robin Hood.