MIT students rescue dog tossed from stolen vehicle; teenager charged, police say

A group of MIT students rescued a dog dumped out of a stolen car Saturday on Wadsworth and Amherst Streets in Cambridge, police said.MIT Police Department

A group of MIT graduate students are being commended for rescuing a dog that was abandoned from a stolen vehicle Saturday, officials said.

At around 4:15 p.m., a woman reported that her car had been stolen from the parking lot of a TJ Maxx store in Brookline with her dog inside, police said. She had left the 2017 BMW unlocked with the key in the console, Cambridge police wrote in a post.

Just a few minutes later, the MIT students saw the driver of the stolen vehicle leave the dog at the intersection of Wadsworth and Amherst streets in Cambridge, campus police said on Facebook.

The students swooped in to help, police said. As they tried to get the dog off the street, the BMW nearly backed into them before driving off, police said.

After flagging down campus police around 4:30 p.m., the students used the dog’s tags to contact the owner, who was “appreciative and emotional” to be reunited with the dog, named Millie, police said.

“This is a great example of the MIT Police and MIT Sloan School Graduate Students working together to reunite this dog with the owner for a heart-warming ending!!” campus police said.

The car was later found abandoned on Winter Street in Cambridge around 5:30 p.m., police said.

The alleged thief, a teenage boy from Cambridge, was taken into custody on Wednesday, police said. He was arrested last week for a carjacking in Medford, police said.

The boy, who was not named because he is a juvenile, is facing charges of larceny of a motor vehicle and larceny over $1,200 out of Norfolk Juvenile Court, as well as receiving a stolen motor vehicle and receiving stolen property over $1,200, police said. Additional charges are expected from Cambridge police, authorities said.