Man arrested for suspected dog-flipping

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - You may have heard of house flipping; it's when someone buys a house cheap and sells it for a profit. But what about dog flipping?  It's the same principle, but instead of buying the dog, the dog is stolen and used to help make a profit.

An Indianapolis man is in jail for doing just that. Police say he could be responsible for flipping dogs over the past 8 years. 

Ceazer is a black and tan German Shepherd. Ceazer's owners put a picture of him on a Craigslist ad after he was stolen in January. He's is back with his owners now, but it turns out police believe he may have been used for dog flipping.

"It's not a new thing; I think it's kind of been under the radar for quite a while," said Indianapolis Animal Care and Control Deputy Chief Marcus Brown.

Deputy Chief's Brown department discovered Johnny Jones dog flipping inside his east side home.

"Once we raided the residence, the ERG teams, basically he had a training room inside his residence," Deputy Chief Brown said.

He said like other dog flippers,  55-year-old Jones targeted his unsuspecting victims on Craigslist.

"These people are taking animals that are either purebred such as Mr. Jones was taking," Deputy Chief Brown said.

Ben Eiler owns Ceazer. He originally put an add on Craigslist for someone to house sit Ceazer until they found more space.

"We were in the process of moving and we could not take him where we were going..we couldn't find a place with the little bit of money we had," Eiler said.

Police said Jones answered that add and claimed to work for a K-9 Training Center. When Eiler and his wife found a place to keep him, Jones was no where to be found.

"Johnny shut his cell phone off so I lost contact, complete contact with him," Eiler said.But by the time police were on to Jones, Ceazer was gone.

Police said Jones dumped Ceazer before they closed in on him.

"If you have a pet; horse, animal cat, it doesn't matter what it is, get it micro-chipped," Eiler said.

And that's how Ceazer ended up reunited with his owners.

Investigators said Ceazer is a lucky dog in this case. They said his owners never gave up on finding him; they went to social media talking about what happened.

Deputy Chief Brown said if pet owners are having trouble taking care of their pets and want to keep them, there's an organization called FIDO or Friends of Indianapolis Dogs Outside that are able to help.