BANGOR – A puppy that was stolen last week from the Bangor Humane Society has been returned safe and sound, and the culprits have been charged with theft.

Amanda Buckland, 20, of Bangor told police that she stole the 10-week-old pit bull-hound mix for her brother whose dog died while he was serving in Iraq.

“She told me she wanted to get him a puppy for when he comes home,” Bangor police Officer Larry Morrill wrote in his incident report.

Buckland and her boyfriend, William Randall, 32, of Bangor, told Morrill they didn’t have the money to pay for the puppy, but intended to return to the shelter on Wednesday when Randall got paid.

The puppy, named Aster, was returned to the shelter around 7 p.m. Tuesday after a concerned resident tipped off police, Morrill said Wednesday.

When Morrill arrived at the residence where the puppy was believed to be, he saw parked at the corner of Garland and Essex streets the 1995 red Pontiac Grand Am the couple had reportedly used to get away.

“The first apartment door I knocked on, it was theirs,” Morrill said. When talking with Buckland, who opened the door, Morrill said he heard a puppy whine from inside the apartment.

Aster reportedly was snatched when Buckland and Randall went to the Humane Society last Friday to attempt to adopt a puppy. Buckland and Randall became discouraged by the lengthy process and $180 adoption fee and left, but not before Buckland hid Aster under her clothes, according to Rochelle Black, Humane Society adoption and volunteer program manager. The adoption fee covers the costs of neutering, shots and kenneling.

One of the staff members tried to stop the couple, but they jumped into the Grand Am and drove onto Mount Hope Road toward Veazie.

“There’s so many free puppies out there I can’t believe somebody would steal one,” Black said Wednesday.

Buckland said she’d heard on the news that they wouldn’t be charged if they returned the puppy, but Morrill informed them that a police report had been filed and that it will be up to the Humane Society and District Attorney’s Office to decide if they will pursue prosecution.

Currently, Buckland and Randall are scheduled to appear at 8:30 a.m. Dec. 6, at 3rd District Court in Bangor.