finding a dog

Question
QUESTION: I'm not sure whether to ask this here or in a different section.  Recently my friend who owns a dog found a young dog tied to a bench on his walk with his own dog.  He waited a few minutes and since no owner came her checked for tags, which there were none, so he untied the puppy and took it home to keep!  I was sort of astounded and appalled. In my mind that's stealing. There was no indicator that this dog was abandoned or neglected.  The only thing we know for sure is that for whatever reason it had no collar - but there could be any number of reasons for that that don't necessarily point to this dog's owner being not deserving of his/her dog.  The owner may have jumped into a shop for a second, or like me, I left our dog tied to a bench when I went inside my daughter's school to pick her up at home time.  Is there something I don't get about dogs here, because everyone he's told is on board with him stealing this dog - they all think it's right and that the owner is horrible, based on, from what I can see, nothing.  Was he right to take the dog and what on earth can I do to help fix this if he isn't right?  From where I sit my friend is looking like a jerk to me.

ANSWER: Hi,  I don't know how long your friend waited, but people do tie their dogs outside sometimes.. Why don't you talk to your friend and tell him that if he is sure the dog was abandoned, that you will take a picture of the dog and make up some fliers and put them up around the area where he found the dog.  This way he will ensure that no one can accuse him of stealing and that if noone answers the ad, he will become the legitimate owner.
nancy

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi! I love your suggestion.  The only problem is that we live 3 hours away from one another. Any idea how I could make a difference long distance?  Would it be worth calling the humane society up in his area to tip them off that if anyone is looking for a lost lab I might know who has it...?  or is that just terrible of me?

-Te

Answer
call the humane society and the dog shelter.  Let them know your friend found a dog and you are trying to find the owner or would like to know if anyone is looking for the dog.  Then you can call your friend if someone is actually looking for the dog and let him know the owner is looking for the dog.  You can also call the store owners in that area and leave your name with them.  You can always tell your friend you left your name with the store owners.  You don't have to tell him when you left it.
nancy