Dog stolen from Spitalfields found after tweet from BGT presenter Stephen Mulhern

The beagle breed was reunited with her owner three-days after being taken (Image: Archant)

Two-year-old beagle Molly was missing for three days after being taken from outside Sainsbury’s Local, Toynbee Street, on Sunday.

But she was tracked down after Stephen Mulhern, presenter of spin-off ITV show Britain’s Got More Talent, joined a social media campaign to find her.

Mr Mulhern said he sent the tweet after being contacted by friend Mr Harris. “Nick said to me I just can’t control my emotions, I’m feeling absolutely dreadfully upset,” he said.

“I’ve never been a massive Twitter person but when you can use it for something that’s so good, it’s incredible really.”

Molly’s owner, Nick Harris, 42, of Toynbee Street, contacted police, put up posters, searched the area and asked locals to spread the word on social media before Mr Mulhern, an old friend, tweeted a poster with information about the dog on Wednesday.

The Catchphrase presenter told his 458,000 followers: “Please help my mate find his dog Molly, she was his world & someone has stolen her. Thank u [sic].”

Mr Harris said: “He [Mr Mulhern] sent me a text saying ‘tweet done’. I read that text, put the phone in my pocket and then it rang and a guy said ‘I’ve got your dog’, after 30 seconds.”

The caller was a TV editing apprentice from New Cross, South East London, whose brother had been given Molly by a stranger outside Liverpool Street Station in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Mr Harris, who owns Toynbee Street’s Duke of Wellington pub, left a business meeting in Bishop’s Stortford immediately and drove to New Cross to be reunited with Molly.

He said: “She was fine, she went absolutely ballistic obviously when she saw me.”

The incident has discouraged Mr Harris from leaving a dog tied up outside a shop. “To try and find a dog in London is like a needle in a haystack really,” he said. “I’d never tie her up anywhere again.”