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Verify: What to do if you find a dog in a car

You can be charged if you end up breaking a window to rescue a pet and depending on the value of the window.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A Coastal Bend woman recently came across a dog left in a parked vehicle during the heat of the day and asked 3News to verify if someone would face any legal problems if they ended up breaking a vehicle window to rescue a pet.

According to experts at Corpus Christi Animal Care Services, even if you do find an animal left inside a parked vehicle with the windows rolled up, you can't legally break a window to get the animal out. 

"By no means should any citizen take it upon themselves to break that window. Why is that? It's against the law, for one thing; it's someone else's property, when my animal control officers go out we are not authorized to break that window until the police department arrives on the scene," director Mike Gillis said. 

Gillis said it's rare for them to have to break a window, and most of the time the owner is found before any serious problems develop.

You can be charged if you end up breaking a window to rescue a pet and depending on the value of the window, it could be a Class B misdemeanor, and you could face a fine and possibly up to six months in jail. 

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