Sleuthing family take their own action after their beloved dog is taken outside Lidl

A has been found 200 miles from home - nearly one year after he was taken from outside a .

Constantin Munteanu, the owner's father, had tied Lex to a railing before visiting the supermarket to buy flowers for his wife on January 6. He contacted police but the spitz's owner, Florentina Munteanu, 43, said officers did not take the "kidnapping" in Antwerp, Belgium, seriously.

But the family "decided to take action themselves" and set up a page to trace Lex. They've had hundreds of false leads since but, this week, Chantal Voet, a French woman, sent a photo of a homeless man with a fluffy white dog - and Ms Munteanu recognised him as Lex instantly.

She said: "I knew immediately, 'that is Lex. I immediately contacted the French police and asked them to go there with a chip reader to check the DogID [the Belgian registration service]. The chip number matched."

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Lex was found 300 days after he was seized outside the supermarket. Speaking to the Het Laatste Nieuws newspaper, Ms Munteanu said her family was disappointed with the police's response in Belgium. It was the family's work on social media which led to the find.

After French police confiscated the dog and set up a video call, Lex "recognised his family immediately". Ms Munteanu said the pooch "responded enthusiastically".

After driving to Paris, the family were reunited with their pet. A video posted on Facebook shows Lex back with his owners. "In a nanosecond he jumped towards us," Ms Munteanu told the Dutch broadcaster VRT: "When I hugged Lex again a thousand emotions went through me. Happiness, relief, sadness. Our homecoming was also wonderful."

The homeless man said he bought the dog at a market in Paris, and showed the police falsified papers. Lex's owners said their pet had been castrated but had "certainly got food, he gained some weight". The family has called for a change in the law so theft of a pet is treated more seriously. Ms Munteanu said: "A dog is a living creature. This is not theft but kidnapping."