Backstreet's Littrell Rewards Cops For Finding Purloined Pooches

Singer donates $10,000 to department's 'vest fund' for returning two Chihuahuas stolen last year.

Though he's a bona fide TV celebrity, perhaps not even the Taco Bell Chihuahua is worth 10 large. But then again, he's not owned by a Backstreet Boy.

Brian Littrell rewarded Georgia's Cherokee County Sheriff's Department with $10,000 for returning two Chihuahuas taken from his home last July.

Earlier this year, officers received the check, dated December 29, 2000, to be used for the department's "vest fund," a kitty created to purchase much-needed bulletproof vests, according to a department spokesperson. Police unveiled 30 new vests, ordered months ago, to local media on Wednesday.

Deputies recovered the pinched pooches, Li'l Tyk Thomas and Litty Leigh, a few days after Littrell, a Cherokee County resident, reported them missing (see "BSB's Littrell Reunited With Stolen Pets"). Two trespassing teenage girls were suspected of taking the canines, though Littrell and his then-fiancée, actress Leighanne Wallace, didn't press charges.

— Joe D'Angelo