A pet owner's relief turned to disbelief. Two yellow Labradors got away from a rural Gretna home and were rescued from interstate traffic by a passing driver. The pets then ended up being taken by strangers and the bizarre incident was captured on security video.

“I feel terribly that I gave these dogs to someone without challenging them that they were the owner,” says Karlyn Westover. Driving to Omaha Wednesday afternoon, the UNO professor spotted the dogs roaming near interstate 80 and coaxed them into her car. “Sweet dogs.”

She called the owner identified on the collars of Charlie and Stellar, mother and pup, and the owner arranged to meet at a Highway 370 convenience store. She was shocked that someone else took the dogs before she got there.

“When you think you are going to pick up your dogs and see this video and someone else has taken off with them, I can't even say,” says owner Kim Mowinkel.

The store's video was posted on Facebook and You Tube, so the couple who took the dogs called Kim's husband, blaming it all on a miscommunication. “I asked him, are you Jim, the man I talked to on the phone, the owner and he sort of waved me off and said something about his girlfriend," says Westover.

The motive for strangers taking the dogs may be hard to sniff out, but the mother and son reunion with their owners is all that matters now.

The couple who had the dogs said they had only intended to help out. The two labs are back with their owners, who say they won't press charges.