Have you seen Scooby?

When 10-year-old Talia Surges got home from school last week, she thought someone had found her uncle's dog, Scooby, because the "missing dog" signs her family had put up had been taken down around their Gilberts neighborhood.

But Talia's excitement quickly returned to grief when she was told the black and brown miniature pinscher, which had bolted from the family's Whitefeather Lane home on Saturday morning, had not been returned, Talia's father Cliff Surges said.

A village official had removed the signs per village code and has since returned them to the family. But Surges said the approach was insensitive.

"A code enforcement officer looked at a sign that said 'lost dog' and instead of calling the number and saying, 'Look, there's a problem with your signs, can you please move them back,' the officer took them down," Surges said. "When there is that lack of compassion, I have a problem with the community I live in."

The signs had been tacked to telephone poles at entrances to nearby subdivisions. But those poles are in the village's right of way - a violation of the sign ordinance, Village President Tom Wajda said.

"It's unfortunate, but people need to understand that signs have to be in the right spot," said Wajda, who noted Surges is a former village trustee who should have been aware of the rules. "I appreciate their issue and I sympathize with them, but if you post a sign in the wrong place, it goes."

The village code allows signs to be placed on private property.

Wajda said the village is taking a proactive approach to sign removal to "keep the village looking halfway nice."

Scooby is a 1-year-old miniature pinscher and weighs about 8 pounds. He was not wearing a collar or tags when he ran away, Surges said.

"He is a great little chase-the-ball kind of dog," Surges said. "He is good natured and just a great little dog."