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LAWRENCE — An English bulldog worth $3,500 and stolen from a Salem, N.H., pet store 16 months ago was found living in filth in a Lawrence apartment.

The dog was found last Wednesday and identified through a microchip implanted under the animal's skin over the shoulders by Sea World Pet Center, where it was stolen Feb. 11, 2008.

After an investigation, Lawrence police last night arrested Jamie Garcia-Heredia, 24, and his live-in girlfriend, Michelle Velez, 22, who rent the apartment at 21 Springfield St., where the dog named Rocky was found.

They were charged with cruelty to an animal and receiving stolen property over $250, which carries a sentence of five years in jail.

Rocky was stolen by a man who hid him under his jacket and walked out of the store.

Police said Garcia-Heredia and Velez told them the dog was not theirs and belongs to a former roommate name Claudio.

The suspects said Claudio disappeared two months ago, leaving Rocky with them.

"I don't want him to come back and find out his dog is gone," Garcia-Heredia told police.

"We couldn't believe it," said Tisha Wells, puppy room manager at Sea World. "It's been so long. We didn't think we would find him."

Wells said English bulldogs are good to have as pets and owners need money to care well for them.

A National Grid employee found the dog when he went to work on the apartment, where Garcia-Heredia and Velez live with their 3-year-old son.

The utility worker called police because he said he was unable to "stomach" the conditions in the rear hallway on the third floor.

Rocky was penned in the hallway with baby gates, covered in its own waste and without water or food.

"When (we) entered the rear stairwell the stench was unbearable even on the first floor," Officer Scott Peloquin wrote in his report.

Peloquin and Detective Paul Rossi said the area was infested with flies.

"The dog itself was in distress; the dog showed severe signs of malnutrition, his eyes were crusted over and there were open sores and lesions all over the dog's body," Peloquin wrote in his report.

"I agreed it was the worst conditions we've experienced," Peloquin said. "If we were to leave the dog it would put the dog in further distress and may kill it."

In an interview with The Eagle-Tribune, Garcia-Heredia yesterday said he was "surprised" when police told him the dog was stolen.

"You have to be careful with whom you do a favor for," he told The Eagle-Tribune.

Garcia-Heredia said he gave food and water to Rocky before leaving for work, and left him chained outside so he could run.

After being seized from the Lawrence apartment, Rocky was taken to Nevins Farm at the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Methuen, where the microchip was detected.

"He was in a really good mood," Wells, of Sea World, said when she saw Rocky last Thursday. "We're excited about getting him back so he can get well and be put up for adoption."