Lady Gaga refuses to pay $500,000 reward to woman who recovered her stolen dogs

In February 2021, Lady Gaga experienced one of the most devastating moments of her life: two of her three French bulldogs were stolen in Los Angeles when her walker, Ryan Fischer, took them for a walk through the streets of the city.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
12 June 2023 Monday 10:56
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Lady Gaga refuses to pay $500,000 reward to woman who recovered her stolen dogs

In February 2021, Lady Gaga experienced one of the most devastating moments of her life: two of her three French bulldogs were stolen in Los Angeles when her walker, Ryan Fischer, took them for a walk through the streets of the city. A robbery and subsequent kidnapping that left the walker injured after receiving a fisparo from several men, in charge of kidnapping the dogs.

Faced with this situation, the singer did not think twice and offered a reward of 500,000 dollars (about 463,275 euros, in exchange) for the person who recovered them, without asking questions. That person did not take long to appear several days later: her name was Jennifer McBride, and she acted as a good Samaritan towards the singer. Everything would have been fine, except that now Lady Gaga refuses to pay the reward. The reason, that McBride herself was accused of being an accessory to the robbery by having a relationship with one of the attackers.

As TMZ revealed at the time, McBride would not have stood idly by and would have decided to start a legal process herself to obtain her juicy reward, in which no questions were going to be asked. What's more, the young woman asks for half a million dollars more to compensate her for having offered what she calls a "deceptive reward."

McBride's legal team is clear that the young woman "had absolutely no participation in the theft of the dogs", and for this reason they ask the singer to settle her debt. For her part, the singer would have already asked the Los Angeles Superior Court of Justice to dismiss the lawsuit filed by the alleged "rescuer" of her dogs.

Furthermore, in December, McBride was sentenced to two years probation for failing to knowingly refuse to receive stolen property. However, the young woman continues to demand that the artist pay her, maintaining her lawsuit for breach of contract, false promise fraud and misrepresentation fraud. As if that were not enough, McBride also asks that the artist bear legal expenses and compensation for damages, given the "mental anguish and loss of enjoyment of life" that she has suffered.

On July 10, the hearing on the motion to dismiss the case will take place.

While McBride tries by all means to get the money, the rest of the robbers continue to serve their sentences. The man who shot the artist's dog walker, James Howard Jackson, was sentenced in late December to 21 years in prison after failing to answer a charge of attempted murder.

Fischer was wounded in the chest during the attack, and a month later revealed on Instagram that he had suffered a collapsed lung.