Dressage Daily Features Lily Chiu Zilo

Lily Zilo and Her Come Back Zoe Efforts Paid Off in Police Sting

Written by Mary Phelps Hathaway
Tuesday, 06 April 2010 06:36

When Dressage rider, Lily Zilo’s four month old puppy Zoe was stolen from her car near West Palm Beach, she launched a full blown effort to find the Zilo’s newest family member, with fliers, posters, and even contacting the well known animal psychic team of Linda Johns and Kate Keigel. Her search was broadcast on three local televison networks, and supported by all her facebook friends. Four days later, after playing along with the people who contacted her seeking the reward money offered, the thinly veiled scam all came undone in the parking lot of a Home Depot, with six unmarked police vehicles lying in wait. All Lily had to do when she was presented with her dog was to take her hat off if the puppy being delivered to her was identified. But she forgot !

Zilo was so overwhelmed and excited to see her puppy she had been searching for she forgot about the signal. As Lily was hugging and kissing her puppy, daughter Jessica knocked off her hat off her head. “I did not even see any of them (the detectives and undercover officers) in my peripheral vision,” said Zilo. “But in two seconds, they had surrounded the person who brought Zoe to the parking lot, and it was all over.”Wearing her new Come Back Courtney T-Shirt, one of the multiple fundraising efforts launch for injured Olympian Dressage rider, Courtney King Dye, Zilo brought rescued hostage Zoe to Dressage at Equestrian Estates and entertained us with her story.