A Swiss man has his lucky stars and the Polish police to thank after they managed to foil a kidnapping plot against his two dogs.

The story comes from the Polish town of Szczecin, where a former municipal councilman from a suburb of Zurich fell into an elaborate theft and extortion campaign at the hands of a Polish man and a Norwegian.

Seduced by the Norwegian, whose name for statement purposes has been released merely as K, 59-year-old Rolf Wegmüller instead had his two Bolonka dogs stolen before facing a ransom demand of 1 million Swiss francs.

“They knew that I have a very emotional bond with my dogs. If I’d had a million francs at home, I would have handed over the money immediately,” Wegmüller told Swiss newspaper 20 minuten.

Eventually the ransom was reduced to a quarter, but Wegmüller demanded to see proof of his dogs’ life. At first they responded that proof would come in the mail in the form of the two animals’ heads, but they eventually sent a picture of the two dogs in a wood near the Polish border.

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It was this photo that led the Polish police to the northwestern city of Szczecin, where the suspects were arrested and the dogs taken into police custody and eventually into animal care. Arriving in Poland last week, the desperate Wegmüller was relieved to see his little fur babies again.

The police would end up catching K at the airport before he could fly home, with one Swiss lawyer commenting that such behavior carries a penalty of around 5 years in jail, whilst in Poland, the native member of the plot faces as much as 10.

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“I am sorry that K messed up his life at the age of 30, but I cannot forgive the fact that I was tortured in such a way,” Wegmüller said according to Notes From Poland. Despite the trauma, he is relieved to have his beloved pets back.

“The two of them are my everything. I can’t live without them. The police in Szczecin did the best job in the world.”