PHOENIX — A Phoenix couple is issuing a warning to dog owners after they experienced a nightmare with a dog sitter over the holidays. They used the popular pet sitting app Rover to find someone to watch their two dogs and were horrified to see the care that their pets actually received.
All of it was caught on camera.
'No one is home with the dogs for 23 hours, plus. They’re crated for three days straight.'
To Brooke Gambino and Mohammad Kabiri, their dogs, Gustav and Bernardo, are family.
“Both of the dogs are very special to us," Gambino said.
So when they had a 10-day family trip to Costa Rica, finding a good dog sitter who could administer medications, feed and play with their pets was imperative. They turned to Rover for help and opted for the house-sitting option to have the dog sitter stay at their Phoenix home.
“We really didn't give her much responsibility, aside from feeding them and being with them and making sure they didn't escape," Gambino said.
They would later learn that is exactly what happened.
“This is a disaster," Gambino said.
The red flags first came in the form of messages. They were sent a photo from the dog sitter checking in with them, but the dog in the photo was not theirs.
“Her response was like, 'That's Tess of course' as if I was the one that was in the wrong. I'm like, no, no, I know, that's not my dog," Gambino recalled.
Then, when they got home, they were greeted by a mess. Their coffee table was stained and their bed was filled with mystery stains. Trash, shoes, car keys, and several other items were left around their house.
“There's a Ford car key, there's AirPods, three shoes," Kabiri said.
That's when they decided to take a look back at their Ring doorbell camera which revealed much worse.
Several clips show their dogs darting out the front door into the street near oncoming traffic while the dog sitter shows little sense of urgency.
“This is a busy street right here. Our dogs ran out, they were gone for 30 minutes, she didn't even chase after them," Gambino said.
At one point, the dog sitter calls out the wrong name. Later, the dog sitter's boyfriend questions her about what was going on.
"Where are the dogs?" he's heard saying. "What have you done?”
The dogs are later seen walking back up to the house on their own.
Gambino and Kabiri say they got a message that the sitter needed to go to the hospital and her boyfriend would continue to watch the dogs for the remainder of their trip.
Cameras, though, show few check-in trips for just a few minutes at a time.
“No one is home with the dogs for 23 hours, plus. They’re crated for three days straight," Gambino said.
Rover told 12News they are carefully reviewing the details in this "unusual experience" and have suspended the sitter from their platform while they conduct their investigation.
They will be providing Gambino and Kabiri will a full refund.
They say in the Phoenix area, close to 400,000 services have been booked through Rover with 98 percent of stays receiving a five-star review.
Rover says sitters must pass a background check and complete a safety quiz to appear on the app.
“This app can only vet someone to such a capacity," Gambino said.
Thankfully, Bernardo and Goose are okay, but their owners hope their story serves as a warning so this does not happen again.
“Nothing happened to our dogs by luck. Like, just by pure luck," Gambino said. "We would never want someone to have to deal with that.”
You can read Rover's full statement here:
"Our 24/7 team is carefully reviewing all of the details of this truly unusual experience. In the meantime, we will be providing Mr. Kabiri with a full refund, and work with him on other ways we can support him and his pets.
Pending the results of our investigation, we have suspended the sitter from our platform.
As part of our booking process, we encourage pet owners to conduct a Meet & Greet with prospective sitters and carefully outline expectations for caring for their pets. All sitters on Rover must pass a background check, complete a safety quiz, and have their profile reviewed by a member of our team prior to listing their services on the platform.
Safety is at the heart of everything we do at Rover. Our 24/7 Trust and Safety team is available to assist both pet parents and pet sitters in the rare event a service doesn’t go exactly as planned, and we encourage our community to reach out to us with any questions or concerns. Every stay booked on Rover is protected by the Rover Guarantee, which provides a substantial reimbursement for eligible claims, including veterinary expenses.
We appreciate the trust pet parents in the Phoenix area have placed in our community and will work every day to keep earning that trust. In the Phoenix area, close to 400k services have been booked through our platform, with 98% of reviewed stays receiving a five-star review."
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