NINE adorable puppies and their mother – said to be worth GBP10,000 –  have been stolen in the latest case of dognapping to hit the Midlands.

The Dogue de Bordeaux dogs were taken from an unlocked shed in a back garden in Tipton in the Black Country.

The mother Tia was bought by the family eight months ago and only gave birth to the litter last month.  They said the dogs were worth about GBP1,000 each.

Distraught owner Maria Smallman, 52 said: “We’re absolutely devastated. They have taken the mother knowing the puppies are still feeding off her.”

Her 16-year-old daughter Donna has been left shellshocked by the theft.

The raiders, who had to break two padlocks on a back gate to get into the garden, also stole a dog lead that had been left on the fence.

Dognappings have doubled in the past 12 months in the area, it has been revealed.

Two weeks ago a helpless 16-week-old puppy hit the headlines after he was snatched by cruel thieves under his distraught owners’ noses before speeding off on a motorbike.

Adorable spaniel Alfie can be seen in these CCTV pictures gazing in to the camera lens as he is wedged between the two men in bike helmets – in scenes more reminiscent of a bank robbery.

The duo were riding a motorbike in a trading estate in West Bromwich, West Midlands, when they stopped.

One of them leapt off the bike and grabbed the cute dog from a play pen before the pair sped off.

The dog’s owners Pauline and Ian Parsons, both 45, from Brierley Hill, West Midlands,  were “heartbroken” by the loss of their beloved pet.

But they had a happy ending after they were reunited with their beloved pet.

The tiny spaniel was returned by a couple who bought him just hours after he was snatched from outside the family business in West Bromwich.

The couple, from Coseley, West Mids, about 10 miles away from the industrial park where the snatch occurred, said that they were walking their own dog when a man approached them and asked if they wanted to buy another dog.

They forked over the GBP150 asking price for the little King Charles Cavalier spaniel, after being told that he was the last of a large litter.

After seeing press coverage about Alfie’s disappearance, the couple contacted the Parsons family to tell them the good news.

He was quickly reunited with his rightful owners, who said that he is slowly getting over the ordeal.

Pauline said: “He was a bit timid at first, but he’s settling back in now.

“It must have been a bit of a shock for him.”