A man was killed by home invaders who were after his precious dog.
45-year-old Donald ‘Prentice’ Patience was a father-of-three and dog lover from Radcliffe, England, who was found dead at his Manchester home on Tuesday.
After the shocking discovery, it was revealed that the man was killed by dognappers who broke into his home in order to snatch his labradoodle. While attempting to protect his pooch from the raiders, Donald suffered extensive injuries. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Hours after the bloody altercation, the police retrieved the stolen dog. It is believed that the animal was taken to a grooming business just fifty yards from the man’s home after it was dognapped.
Patience’s grieving family has since spoken out and paid the father a tribute saying he was an “incredible man” who “adored his children.”
“This breaks my heart to have to write this. As a lot of you may have already seen, this week we lost an extremely incredible man,” his ex-wife and the mother of his three children, Kirsty, wrote.
“Despite whatever happened between us, Prentice was an amazing father and adored his children.
“We are all truly heartbroken at this news and we are all struggling to come to terms with his death.”
Following the brutal killing, three men have been arrested on suspicion of murder and dognapping. While one remains in custody, two have already been released on bail after police questioning.
“I’d not long opened up the shop and a young man called in and said ‘I only live over the road, my boss wants his dog’s hair cut, can you do it?’ The man was fairly young, at a guess I’d say in his late 20s, and the dog was an off-white labradoodle,” Mick Hewitson, the owner of the grooming business near Patience’s home, said as he recalled the moment the stolen labradoodle was brought to his place.
“He said his boss had gone up to Scotland and left him some money for the dog to get a trim. I have a sore shoulder so I’m limiting the amount of work I’ve got on at the moment- particularly walk-ins – so I declined. The man and dog walked off.”
He added: “This must have been just before 10am on Tuesday as I already had another dog in.
“Half an hour later the police had all rushed around and that same man was arrested. The police had hold of the same labradoodle.
“I’ve never seen the dog before that, or the bloke who was killed even though the house where it happened is just across the road.”
Our thoughts remain with Patience’s loved ones during this challenging time.