Here's Why You Don't Leave Dogs in a Running Car

One drove the getaway car and one operated the vehicle's windows in a West Virginia Walmart's parking lot on Friday. But the car didn't get far (it actually crashed into the store), and cops didn't even have to collar the perps, because they were already collared. A dog was behind the wheel in the Wayne incident, and a dog who was seated in the passenger seat, WSAZ reports, both left alone in the car while the car's owner was inside shopping. An employee outside on her break who first saw the car start its slow-moving cruise right toward her tells the station she thought someone she knew was fooling around, but when she saw it was a canine driver, she jumped out of the way and the car crashed into the side of the building.

Walmart employees paged the owner, who was described as close to 80 years old and who said she had left the engine running with the AC on so her pups could stay cool. Jalopnik notes that the Mercury apparently had a column-mounted gear-changer, meaning one of the dogs likely hit it out of "park" and into "drive" (though that still doesn't explain how the shotgun pooch managed to roll down the window after the car had crashed, as the employee noted). The owner was able to drive her car out of the lot, with little damage to the store and her car, and no injuries for her joyriding dogs. (A dog in Minnesota put the pedal to the metal in a semi-truck.)