Manhattan prosecutors are playing rough with an accused dognapper, recommending that he spend a year in jail for allegedly swiping a 7-year-old girl’s spaniel outside a Washington Heights grocery on Christmas Eve.
That would be the maximum sentenced possible for Brad Bacon, 29, on misdemeanor larceny charges for allegedly stealing little “Marley” from distraught owner Mia Bendrat.
Marley and the girl were reunited a day later, on Christmas, after a good Samaritan bought the clearly shaken pooch from Bacon for $220 and called the cops.
Bacon declined to plead guilty during a brief appearance in Manhattan Criminal Court yesterday, and claimed to The Post that he only took the spaniel because he thought it was homeless.
“I love dogs,” Bacon said. “I thought somebody abandoned it. . .I ant inside the store and started yelling, ‘Whose dog is this? Whose dog is this?’ ” he claimed.
Bacon is due back in court May 13.