Barrington Police charged 58-year-old Warren resident Gerald Stills with abandonment of an animal-first offense and improper care of animals, after he allegedly tried to abandon his dog inside a tennis court at Chianese Park last month.

Early in the morning on Oct. 18, police received a phone call from a worker at the Barrington Department of Public Works who stopped by Chianese and discovered a dog locked inside the fenced-in tennis and pickle ball courts. 

A police officer responded to Chianese and brought the mixed breed dog back to the station. Officers were later able to track down the dog’s owner. 

Stills allegedly told police that he had been walking the dog the previous night when it spotted some coyotes and ran off after them. Stills told police he searched for his dog but was unable to find it and eventually gave up looking.

Police returned the dog to Stills that day, but a few days later police began to doubt the veracity of Stills’s story. Barrington Police said Stills’ story about how his dog ended up in the locked tennis court did not line up.

On Thursday, Oct. 26, Barrington Police charged Stills with abandonment of an animal-first offense and improper care of animals. Police also seized the dog and are working to find it a new home.