♪ this is "nightline." >> tonight, dog theft. >> the national dog show best in show winner is the french bulldog. >> french bulldogs may have been named best in show and the arm candy of celebrities. but their rising popularity and cost have made them a target for thieves. >> the percentage that are reported as stolen has really been growing. it's alarming. >> one woman's harrowing journey to get her dog back. >> as soon as he handed me my dog, there was at least eight or ten police cars rushing in from all areas. >> how you can keep your pet safe. and "love actually."

>> is natalie here? >> hello. >> the beloved holiday film 20 years later. our diane sawyer with the cast. >> love actually is? >> all that matters. i've always felt that. self-love, love for others, all of the versions of love. that's all there is. >> plus how hugh grant was convinced to do that famous dance. >> i think i saw it in the script and thought, "well, i'll hate doing that." bring on the dutch. team usa with a historic win. > they're on to the knockout rounds. >> delighting fans and keeping their dreams of world cup glory alive. >> usa, usa, usa, usa! do you struggle with occasional nerve aches in your hands or feet? try nervivenerve relief from the world's #1 selling nerve care company. nervive contains alpha lipoic acid to relieve occasional nerve aches, weakness and discomfort. try nervivenerve relief.

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♪ ♪ thanks for joining us. fans of french bulldogs will tell you there is nothing more adorable. the petite breed is now a favorite for celebs. its popularity skyrocketing. but unfortunately, there's now a hot black market for the cuddly pups. they are the picture-perfect pooch. from their cute little legs and those big, brown eyes to the tips of their perky ears. when it comes to canines, right now, french bulldogs can claim the top spot at the top of the food chain. >> tonight, the national dog

show best in show winner is -- the french bulldog. >> frenchies now the go-to dog of the instagram era with celebrities like reese witherspoon and dwayne johnson posing with their pets. some dogs themselves becoming influencers, like manny the frenchie and gus-gus and marty, a pair of bulldog brothers. but the cuteness doesn't come cheap, and that could add up to trouble. dog thefts are up, way up. 40%, compared to last year. and the american kennel club says french bulldogs are the number one breed targeted by thieves ahead of both labrador retrievers and yorkshire terriers. >> the percentage reported as stolen has really been growing. it's alarming. >> reporter: french bulldogs can cost more than $5,000. one rare pup even sold for $100,000. those price tags along with their soaring popularity make them wildly valuable for resale. watch. this is the moment a french

bulldog named melani was stolen from a california home by masked intruders in the middle day. this past august, a litter of french bulldog puppies stolen from a home on long island. another frenchie almost snatched out of a lobby in new york city. one of the biggest shocks last year when thieves attacked lady gaga's dog walker. the thieves shooting him. stealing two of her frenchies. the dog walker recovered, the pooches were returned, and two men were arrested. still, a sign of desperate times. >> come, come. >> reporter: when patti rime moved to marathon, florida, for a quiet life in the keys, she decided to add a furry friend to the family. >> good girl. >> reporter: 18-month-old sailor. >> she was raised on a boat, potty trained on a boat, loves the water, goes in the dinghy with us, that's why we named her sailor, my best buddy. she's pretty loyal to me. >> reporter: that precious bond

between dog and owner threatened and almost lost forever earlier this year. >> she was gone. and the gate was open. >> reporter: sailor vanished. the french bulldog's disappearance terrifying enough. then things took a turn patti never suspected. >> the suspect said, be in front of this restaurant at this mall or you'll never see your dog again, and you better have $1,000. >> reporter: patty going undercover with law enforcement. >> i wasn't 100% sure i'd get the dog back, but i had to try. >> reporter: these are the moments just before sailor vanished in june. she walks out of frame after being let outside. patti thinks the people who took sailor lured her away. >> she usually sits out there 10 or 15 minutes. normally she'll just give me a quick bark and i let her back in. it had been about 10 minutes. i went, and no dog. we put her on facebook, we offered a $500 reward. no one all day long. >> reporter: then an unexpected phone call. >> the guy said to me, "i think i have your dog."

of course my heart jumped. and i said, "where did you find her?" "oh, she was running down u.s. 1." i knew my dog didn't run down u.s. 1 in the heat, 90-degree heat. then he said, "she was in the walmart parking lot." there's not a walmart for nearly 100 miles. i knew instantly he was lying. >> reporter: patti decided to call the authorities. monroe county sheriff's office captain don hiller answered the call. >> this was a very special case to us. people say, it's only a dog. no, this was a family member. this was their beloved family member. >> this is the area that sailor was initially taken -- >> reporter: detective brandon white was assigned the case. >> miss rine informed me dognappers, so to say, had contacted her again, stating they demanded $1,000 for the return of her dog, otherwise she would not get her dog back. >> reporter: not only receiving phone calls, patti was getting what she described as menacing text messages. >> he sent a picture of her, she looks really distraught.

>> reporter: eventually the people who had sailor agreed to meet patti in miami. >> we made arrangements to meet the suspect, and the monroe county sheriff's deputies were right there with me. they followed us all the way to miami. >> reporter: monroe county and miami-dade police departments came up with a plan to use undercover officers to get sailor back. >> we had officers up there that were going to actually do the exchange. and it happened so quickly, we couldn't even get those officers there to do it. >> my phone rings, at this point a female. had not spoken to a female at all. "do you have my dog?" she said, "yes, i have your dog. if you want your dog back, you need to bring us the money, and you've got 20 minutes. if i see you with anybody and you don't have the money in your hand, we're leaving, and you'll never get your dog back." >> reporter: running out of options, patti decides to take matters into her own hands. instead of waiting for a female undercover officer to arrive -- >> i proceeded to walk up. i had a lot of emotions going

through my mind. of course i wanted my dog back. but i was a little -- a little nervous as well. >> patti was very brave. i don't think we could have kept her away from this if weri >> as soon as he handed me my dog, there was at least eight or ten police cars rushing in from all areas. they were arrested. it was like a television show. >> they were charged with three crimes each. grand theft, dealing in stolen property, and using a cell phone to facilitate the felony, use of a communication device. >> reporter: the two suspects are currently awaiting their trial and have pleaded not guilty. >> she didn't have her collar on anymore. she was shaking. quivering. they had shaved her belly, her belly had been shaved. i believe it was obviously to see if she could have puppies. being that she is spayed, she was of no real value to them. i honestly believe that's why i got my dog back. >> reporter: patti feels relieved that she got sailor

back, but some owners aren't so lucky. >> 95% of all animals are going to be returned through other people's eyes and ears. so witness development, community awareness, you can't start that soon enough. with all the ring and videos and stuff on people's doorbells, many times we get leads from that. >> reporter: pet detective karen tarqwin helps track down stolen dogs. >> i train dogs specifically to look for dogs. >> reporter: she's handled more than 5,000 cases, even taking down a puppy mill with the help of her canine tracking dogs. >> i would say the number one thing, if there's one thing to tell people, it's to know where your pet is at any given moment. and to not have your pet out in public and you're not there. >> we believe most pets are stolen either for the thieves' own family, or to be resold. >> reporter: tom sharp is the head of akc reunite, the largest

nonprofit that tracks lost and stolen pets using microchips. this past month, they've received more than 3,800 reports of missing pets from all 50 states. >> number one, microchip and enroll your pet. it also needs to be enrolled in a 24/7 nationwide service like ours. >> reporter: experts encourage pet owners to think about gps trackers too. >> a lot of people ask the question, is the microchip a gps device? can i activate it to find out where my lost dog is? unfortunately, you can't. the microchip is just an identifying device. the weaknesses with the gps collar devices is that batteries can die, and if you don't find your dog before the battery dies, then it isn't helping anymore. >> reporter: back in marathon, patti and sailor are settling back into their old routines. >> sailor recovered pretty quickly. she's back to her old self. she's just a fun, fun dog.

i'm not in fear. i'm not going to let the rest of the world put me in fear. but you need to be aware of your surroundings and lock your doors and take care of your animals. good girl, sailor, good girl. you want to go for a walk? up next, diane sawyer sits down with the cast of one of the most popular holiday films of all-time, "love actually." when moderate to severe ulcerative colitis persists... put it in check with rinvoq, a once-daily pill. when uc got unpredictable,... i got rapid symptom relief with rinvoq. check. when uc held me back... i got lasting, steroid-free remission with rinvoq. check. and when uc got the upper hand... rinvoq helped visibly repair the colon lining. check. rapid symptom relief. lasting, steroid-free remission. and a chance to visibly repair the colon lining. check. check. and check. rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections,

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actually" was made, george w. bush was in the white house. and we were all 20 years younger. the film is now a holiday classic, and abc's diane sawyer recently caught up with its legendary cast. >> it's a little film that has become a global sensation. we've all watched "love actually" for more than 4.6 billion minutes. audiences all over the world. a holiday favorite that keeps giving the competition a run for its money year after year after year. so we decided to travel to london to find the people who made the film, to talk to them about love then and now. do you get why it's become this thing? >> i so do, i so get it. because i think that we forget, time and time again, we forget that love is all that matters. >> reporter: emma thompson was aready an oscar-winning star when her old friend, richard curtis, asked her to be part of a new movie he'd written.

>> he's just this golden heart he has. he's truly a good person in our business. and that's something to be treasured. >> reporter: hugh grant plays the prime minister who inconveniently falls in love with someone in his office, tries to avoid seeing her, but ends up knocking on random doors to find her. >> is, uh, natalie here? >> reporter: the part was written especially for him by that writer/director, who's also his friend. >> "a," he is funny, that's just a black-and-white thing. he's funny. "b," it comes from the heart, it's true. >> reporter: here's the man who wrote and directed this movie. curtis is the writer behind "four weddings and a funeral," "bridget jones' diary," and that unforgettable moment in "notting hill." >> i'm also just a girl. standing in front of a boy. asking him to love her. >> reporter: he says he still wants to write about the ways we're good to each other in a

world that has so many movies filled with trauma and violence. >> we get thousands of films about serial killers, and there's only ever been about nine of them. and yet there will be a million people falling in love, feeling it's the most interesting moment of their lives. i do think the way to think about life is that every day has the potential in all its simplicity just to be gorgeous. >> reporter: the message of a film 20 years old, back when all these characters were a new idea. and back when one scene almost didn't happen. as we know, the prime minister was a big star who kind of enjoys his reputation for being stubborn. he's supposed to improvise a kind of victory dance, but he won't. >> i think i saw it in the script, "well, i'll hate doing that." >> he kept saying no. >> no englishman can dance when they're sober at 8:00 in the morning. >> i think he was hoping i'd get ill or something and say, what a shame, we'll have to lose that dancing sequence.

>> how did you get him on that day to that point? >> oh, he was grumpy. he was grumpy, but he knew. it was a contractual obligation. a bit of contractual obligation acting. >> and so he starts? >> yes. >> and what are you thinking of it? >> i'm thinking, "oh. good, he's doing it. two, that's agonizingly embarrassing." >> especially at the beginning when i wiggle my arms. ♪ if you want more if you want more more more ♪ ♪ then jump for my love ♪ >> reporter: 3,500 miles away on the streets of brooklyn, new york, another actor has memories from 20 years ago. >> hello. >> hi. >> reporter: laura linney. in the movie she is always taking the phone calls and rushing to the side of her brother, who is in a psychiatric hospital.

>> thank you. >> there was real, legitimate heartache in that movie. you know. "love actually" is not just positive love. it's also the repercussions of love and the responsibility of love and the heartbreak of love. >> reporter: emma thompson and the late alan rickman play two loving parents and partners in a long marriage. she knows about that gold necklace he bought for christmas. she's so excited to open her little box. it's a cd. the necklace was for someone else. >> you said you think everybody has had a version of that necklace? >> oh, yes. >> everyone has had to take the pieces of their heart and put them in the drawer. >> so true. >> reporter: richard curtis says he put the next scene entirely in the hands of emma thompson to do what only she can do. >> it is one of the few times in my life when i've kind of been in the company of genius.

♪ ♪ ♪ tears and fears and feeling proud to say i love you right out loud ♪ >> reporter: we showed richard curtis some of the tiktok tributes to his movie. >> if you look for it, i've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around. >> that's really touching to me. that is in a way my argument. that there's such extraordinary love going on every minute in so many ways, all the way around the world. it makes me wish my film was better. >> love actually is?

>> all that matters. i've always thought that. self-love, love for others, all of the versions of love. but that's all there is. >> all around. i still believe that. so passionately. i think, when you get it right, films can act as a reminder of how lovely things can be and how there are all sorts of things which we might pass by, which were in fact the best moments of our lives. >> you can stream the laughter and secrets of "love actually 20 years later." a diane sawyer special on hulu. when we come back, team usa thrills their fans. what's next for the young american team? >> usa, usa, usa, usa!

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usa! >> the american men brought home a victory today in the world cup, defeating iran 1-0 and advancing to the knockout stage. captain christian pulisic with the goal. but later rushed to the hospital with an abdominal injury. pulisic hopes to be back for the next game saturday against the netherlands. thank you for watching. that's night. see you right back here same time tomorrow. you can see all our episodes on hulu. thanks for staying up with us. good night, america.