A Florida family was overjoyed when their missing dog turned up -– until the rescuer demanded ransom.

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Snoopy escaped from the Toms family home in Sanford two weeks ago and was quickly picked up, police told WKMG-TV, Orlando. But when a woman called to say she had found the pet, she demanded $250 in cash to return him.

The woman continued to insist on cash, and the Toms could not afford to pay.

"I sent text messages. I pleaded with her, 'Look, we have kids, they will miss him,' and she ignored me," Angela Toms said.

"(I was) floored, absolutely floored. She (Angela) was upset, crying and didn't know what to do about it," said her husband, Eddie.

Police told the woman to return Snoopy under threat of jail, and on Thursday, the Toms family was reunited with their pet after she turned it over.

The woman who found Snoopy could face grand theft charges.