A French bulldog named Mooney has been missing from her home in California for more than a year.

But the report on the careless driver on Jan. 4 in Livermore returned Mooney to family nearly 500 miles away in Chula Vista, the Livermore Police Department said in a Jan. 25 Facebook post.

When officers approached the parked car, the driver, later “identified as a parolee with an active warrant for parole without bail,” fled, police said.

“Officers looked into the car and found an abandoned French bulldog,” police said.

Mooney was taken to the East County Animal Shelter, where a technician from the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office found the puppy’s microchip, police said.

The technician spoke with the owner and learned that Mooney had been “missing from the family for over a year,” police said.

The family said they were previously contacted by an unknown user asking them to pay for Mooney’s return, police said. The sender, however, did not show proof that he had Muny, leading the family to think it was a scam.

The family, shocked to find their missing dog eight hours away, “immediately made the long drive to East County Animal Shelter in Dublin to be reunited with Mooney and take him home,” police said.

Livermore is about 40 miles southeast of San Francisco.