FAMILY DOG LEFT IN HOT DAYCARE VAN ALL DAY — OWNER GETS THE CALL THAT MILLER IS DEAD
WHEELING, Ill. — Steve Serota sent his black Labrador, Miller, to Waggles Pet Resort the way he had for years. Hours later, the phone rang. His dog was dead.
Serota told reporters — including an account carried by the Daily Mail — that Miller was picked up in a Waggles van and that several hours later he got the call no owner is built to take: the 6-year-old, 110-pound Lab had been left in the vehicle and did not survive.
Miller was a regular. The Deerfield family used the Wheeling “resort” several times a week so the big, friendly Lab could socialize. A company driver took him from home around 9 a.m. Wednesday. About 4 p.m., Serota said, the facility called and told him Miller had been left in the van the entire day. The north suburbs were under a heat advisory. Air temperatures were in the 90s. The heat index pushed into triple digits. Inside a closed van, it was worse.
Serota drove over. He said Miller was still locked in a crate in the van — the first crate you see when the doors open. Loud. Big. Eye level. Forgotten for hours.
“Knowing what it must’ve been like for him to be in there is absolutely heartbreaking,” Serota said. “Dogs depend on you to protect them.”
Wheeling police charged Waggles owner Ross Niehaus, of Chicago, with cruel treatment of animals. He was released and is scheduled to appear Sept. 25 in Rolling Meadows. The charge is an accusation. Court will decide it.
Waggles later said it was “heartbroken,” that the loss “never should have happened,” and that it was contacting customers who use the transport service. The business remained open.
Miller was not a day-rate. He was the family dog. Photos all over the house. A Lab-shaped pillow the kids take to camp. “The definition of a good boy,” Serota said. Happy. Exuberant. Loved to snuggle. Trusted to the same pickup route for years.
That trust ended in a crate in a hot van.
This is the part that does not get dressed up: when you take money to care for an animal, forgetting it in a vehicle on a heat-advisory day is not a “tragic mix-up.” It is why cruelty statutes exist. Serota is demanding safeguards so no other family gets that 4 p.m. call.
Miller never made it inside the building.
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