When a woman stole her dog, this man did not press charges. Instead, he pays for his drug rehab | Saint-Louis news headlines

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Drug addiction sabotaged Brayden Morton for five years. During this time he tried to get rid of fentanyl 16 times before he was successful.

So when he found the person who stole his beloved dog, Darla, and found out she was addicted to fentanyl, he knew what to do: pay for his rehab and help save his life. .

In June, Morton was working from his home office in Cranbrook, BC, while Darla, a 3-year-old Chinese shar-pei, was lounging on the deck, soaking up the sun.

While he was working, Morton heard a loud noise followed by the sound of his door opening.

“I look out the window and can’t see Darla anymore. I ran up the stairs and out onto the bridge, Darla was gone and I saw a blue Ford truck pull up and go,” Morton said. , 35, at CNN. .

When Darla was robbed, Morton’s life came to an end, he says – nothing mattered but finding her.

“I didn’t think I would ever get her back or see her again,” he said, choking back tears. “I thought she would end up in a fight ring or something worse. I thought she was gone for good.”

“I knew in my heart that this person had Darla”

Morton called the police immediately after Darla went missing. They advised him to search on social media.

He wrote an article on Facebook, offering a $ 5,000 reward to anyone who would help bring Darla home. He received thousands of tips. Most, he says, were empty promises and attempts to get the reward money.

But then he got a tip he hoped was real.

A woman said she saw the same truck, an older blue Ford model, parked in the parking lot of an auto store with a dog inside.

“So I drove over there and saw the truck and, to make it short, Darla wasn’t there,” Morton said. “I was very pissed off and accusing the gentleman in the vehicle. At the time, I was sure it was him, so I wasn’t nice.”

But a day later, Morton got a call from a blocked number.

“I picked it up and all I heard was what sounded like a young woman crying,” he said. “I knew in my heart that this person had Darla. I told her I wasn’t mad at her… and that I was going to collect the award money and come see her.”

Morton called the police. Despite their attempts to accompany him to the meeting place, Morton decided to go see the person alone so that they would not be afraid and try to run away.

When he arrived, the first thing he saw was Darla.

“The moment I saw her I ran over to her and picked her up. It was almost too good to be true,” Morton said. “She was so happy to see me. We were so happy to see each other.”

But then, as he looked at the young woman who had taken her dog, he said he recognized an old version of himself in her eyes.

“She was very obviously addicted to drugs,” he said. “I gave her a hug and she said, ‘Why would you want to kiss a piece of shit like me?'”

Morton told him, “I was addicted to drugs for years. I know what you take. I know what you do. I forgive you completely.”

Instead of giving her the reward money, lest she spend it on drugs, Morton asked if he could pay for her to go to rehab.

She said yes and the couple hugged, crying together.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokesperson Sgt. Chris Manseau confirmed the story to CNN.

“They had a conversation and he got the dog back. There was talk of a reward,” Manseau said. “The owner did not want to press charges against the person who returned the dog. This person tried to involve other people. However, we were unable to make that decision.”

His own fight against drugs

Growing up in Red Deer, Alta., Where he was surrounded by people addicted to fentanyl, Morton became involved in gangs and drugs.

He says he was addicted to fentanyl at the age of 24.

After trying to detox 16 times, Morton says he gave up and tried to kill himself.

“I wasn’t doing anything right with my life. Everything was falling apart for me,” he said. “I had nothing.”

At one point Morton, who was also a drug dealer, was held hostage, shot and stabbed, he says. He escaped with a machete lodged in his head, he said. After the doctors managed to remove the machete, his only concern was getting out of the hospital and getting high.

“I needed to get high so I didn’t get sick. It’s every fentanyl addict’s worst fear, trying to quit and dealing with withdrawal symptoms,” Morton said. “This is where I was in life.”

Days after the incident, as he walked home and passed a pay phone, Morton remembered the phone number of Tricia Hedrick, a family friend who was also a drug rehabilitation specialist.

“It was one of those moments that people always talk about, like God was trying to tell you something,” Morton said. “I just went and dialed her number. When she answered she said, ‘Brayden, your parents think you’re dead.

He had planned to get on a bus the next day. But the night haunted him with doubts, he said. He thought he would never be clean.

“I took a bunch of alcohol and fentanyl and sleeping pills and that night I took it all. I was like, ‘If I don’t die and wake up in some way or some other, I’ll go to rehab. ‘ I don’t know how or what happened, but I woke up. “

Morton says he quit drugs and never returned.

Pay for rehabilitation and recovery

Despite his joy at finding Darla, something inside Morton still felt shattered.

After speaking with the young woman who took Darla, who asked to remain anonymous, Morton discovered that she had been addicted to drugs since the age of 16.

She had stolen Darla for $ 150 donated by people looking for a Chinese shar-pei, most likely for breeding purposes, Morton said. When she saw Darla’s Facebook post, she told him she didn’t have the heart to do it and stole the dog from her.

“I was so happy to find my dog ​​again, but I was so heartbroken by this kid,” Morton said. “It was so fucked up.”

He called it Westminster House, a residential addiction recovery program that Morton often works with that treats young girls and adult women.

Susan Hogarth, executive director of the drug addiction rehab department at the drug rehab center, confirmed to CNN that Morton had posted a bond to reserve a bed for the young woman and that he would pay for her medical and rehab care when she arrived.

“As soon as she arrives she will be flown to Westminster House for treatment,” Hogarth said. “She will receive immediate medical attention and medicine to stabilize herself. We work regularly with Brayden who is an incredible support.”

Although he told the girl that he paid for her admission to the drug rehab center and even bought her plane ticket there, she canceled her admission to the center three times, Morton says.

“I’ve done the same thing before,” Morton said. “It’s not an easy thing to do, go to rehab, but I’m not going to give up on her. She knows that offer will always be there, whenever she’s ready to go, it’s paid off. and it’s a done deal. “

That same day, on his way home, Morton spotted the blue truck and the owner he had wrongly accused of stealing Darla. Hoping to apologize, he stopped next to him.

“I came here to apologize to you. I know you weren’t the one who stole Darla,” Morton told him.

To his surprise, the couple quickly became friends. The owner of the truck shared his own difficult story. He was homeless, having recently caught his wife in an affair. He decided to leave immediately – taking his two dogs and driving aimlessly until he found himself in Cranbrook.

As the two were saying goodbye and Morton exited the parking lot, he turned around, walked back to the man and told him to follow him to a hotel where Morton would pay to stay the week.

“I just wanted to help him get his feet back on the ground,” Morton said.

With the help of some of his friends and their donations, they were able to pay for the man to stay at the hotel for an additional week. He’s now bought his own trailer and got a full-time job, according to Morton, who shared a photo of the couple together on Facebook.

Morton keeps in touch with the two, who he says have taught him invaluable lessons – and reminded him of how important it is to help people who may have no one else to turn to. turn.

“It was very humbling, and in fact these people helped me too,” he said. “I was going through personal stuff at the time and it was very emotional and they warmed my heart. I’m grateful for them.”

The-CNN-Wire

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