HEBRON — It sounded like a run-of-the-mill break-in: while the homeowner was out, thieves got into the house through an unlocked back door and carted off all the expensive electronics they could.

But when culprits raided the Lane Road home of Stacey and Kevin Michaud on Friday, they also made off with a friendly, 2-year-old golden retriever named Kali, leaving the couple and their 16-year-old son Jacob bereft and wondering what happened to the furry fourth member of their family.

“A lot of people thought, ‘Oh she must have run off, she was scared,'” Stacey Michaud said in an interview at her home Monday afternoon.

“But she won’t, she’s afraid of the dark and the woods – she loves people, you could come after her screaming and hollering and she would come up and lick you, she’s not going to run off. Somebody must have taken her.”

By Sunday night, however, Kali was back home safe after news of her abduction spread through Facebook posts from friends and family. 

“To me, it went viral, for something I’ve ever shared,” Stacey Michaud said.

Although she’s not a big a Facebook user, Stacey Michaud is convinced that the attention the story got on the social networking site prompted the burglars,  or someone they knew, to contact the family and return their dog. 

The break-in occurred sometime after 5 p.m. Friday after the Michauds, along with their son and his girlfriend, left to go to dinner in Bethel. When they returned at around 8:30, Kali didn’t bound to the door to greet them, like she usually does.

After they discovered that other items, including laptops, iPads and digital cameras were missing, the family concluded their beloved pet had been taken too, Stacey Michaud said. 

It wouldn’t have been hard to get Kali to hop into a stranger’s vehicle, she admitted. The 70-pound pup is friendly and outgoing. But the thought that someone would actually steal a pet was unimaginable to the family.

“We were devastated,” Stacey Michaud said. 

When Deputy Nate Bowie, came to the home to investigate the break-in Friday night, he mentioned to the Michauds that other cases have been helped out by spreading the word on Facebook, so Stacey posted the news and asked people with information to contact her. 

The response was immediate. By Saturday, Stacey’s post had been picked up by the Facebook page for 101.9 WPOR, a country music station in South Portland. By Monday afternoon, more than 5,000 people from across Maine had shared the story on their own pages.

On Sunday evening, Stacey got a call on her cellphone from a man claiming to have Kali. He said he knew about the burglary and was willing to give their dog back as long as the police weren’t involved. 

“I said, ‘I just want my dog back, I’m not going to turn you in or anything,'” Stacey recalled. She and Jacob met the man in South Paris, where they were reunited with Kali. 

She doesn’t believe Kali was mistreated during the abduction. Although the dog was acting strangely on Monday morning, and hid beneath the Michaud’s bed for a while, by Monday afternoon she seemed to be back to normal, Stacey said.

Deputy Bowie said the investigation into the break-in is still active and officers are following up on several leads. 

Stacey Michaud said she’d like to see the thieves caught, not necessarily to get back the electronics that were stolen, but for the pain they caused the family.

“I think what they did was insanely cruel,” she said, “but we got our dog back, that’s what’s important to us.”

[email protected]