A woman has remarkably been reunited with her lost dog 10 years after it was snatched from her.

Tae Bennett was just 12-years-old when Ollie, her beloved chihuahua, was taken by thieves during a walk in Beckenham in 2012.

The theft was reported to police and charity DogLost, but search appeals came to no avail.

However, a decade on, the pair have finally been brought back together.

A council animal warden who helped reunite Tae and her pooch says the unbelievable episode is “the longest I’ve known a dog to be separated from its owners”.

The appearance of a stray dog in the Hounslow Heath area was brought to the attention of Andy Newnham, a warden with Hounslow Council, west London.

Just days later Ollie and Tae were reunited on March 27 thanks to a microchip.

“It was a horrible thing to happen to me at that age and it was traumatic, but this is a happy ending and we’re all spoiling him rotten.”

“It’s a remarkable case, the longest I’ve known a dog to be separated from its owners,” said Mr Newnham.

Tae, now aged 22, said: “It was crazy. I’d just woken up from a nap and burst into tears when I found out.

“It was a horrible thing to happen to me at that age and it was traumatic, but this is a happy ending and we’re all spoiling him rotten.”

Karen Harding, part of the police liaison team with DogLost, said: “We remember when the incident first happened as the dog was snatched from Tae’s hands, so it’s amazing that they’ve been reunited.

“Since the beginning of 2021, over 11,000 dogs have been listed as stolen or missing on our database – with around half of those having been reunited with their owners.

“However, these are the stories that we want to tell; we also urge owners to chip their dogs and keep their details up to date.

“In some cases, as with Ollie, a dog’s appearance changes so much that they wouldn’t be recognised, highlighting the importance of getting a dog microchipped.”