DELTONA, Fla. \u2013 An emotional reunion unfolded in Deltona after a family was reunited with their beloved dog, Archer, days after he went missing, and after they say they were targeted by a disturbing scam involving artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n
Lytton Cosens said the ordeal began late Saturday night after returning home from an Orlando Solar Bears game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we got home, usually the dogs are there to welcome you,\u201d Cosens said. \u201cBut this time, only one came instead of three.\u201d<\/p>\n
The family quickly realized their 11-year-old beagle mix, Archer, was missing and spent hours searching their neighborhood.<\/p>\n
The next morning, they received a phone call from someone claiming to have found Archer. The caller said the dog had been hit by a car and needed emergency surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first thing we\u2019re thinking is, \u2018Oh my gosh, somebody found him,\u2019\u201d Cosens said. \u201cThey said, \u2018We need to do emergency surgery. Do we have authorization?\u2019 And we said yes.\u201d<\/p>\n
But things took a turn when the caller demanded more than $2,700 for the procedure and insisted the payment be made using gift cards.<\/p>\n
The family asked for proof that the dog was in the caller\u2019s care.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then he sent us a picture, and at first glance, it\u2019s my dog, laying on an operating table,\u201d Cosens said.<\/p>\n
The images appeared convincing at first, but the family soon noticed inconsistencies. They said Archer\u2019s fur patterns looked different, and an X-ray included in the images was dated back to 2022.<\/p>\n
The request for payment through gift cards also raised red flags.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe hung up with them and said, \u2018No, there is something wrong,\u2019\u201d Cosens said. \u201cI was thinking something too, but I didn\u2019t want to be the reason we didn\u2019t save the dog.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later that afternoon, a neighbor told the family they saw a woman pick up Archer after he got loose in the yard. Days later, that same woman and vehicle returned, dropping Archer off in front of the home Thursday morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest fortunate thing is we got Archer back,\u201d Cosens said. \u201cThe poor guy is just emotionally worn out. He\u2019s been through the wringer for about five days.\u201d<\/p>\n
The family said they are grateful to have Archer home safely and are now warning others about the potential dangers of AI being used in scams.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re going to hit someone at their lowest and then try to scam them\u2026\u201d Cosens said. \u201cJustice will be done.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Volusia Sheriff\u2019s Office has opened an investigation into the case.<\/p>\n
Breaking News Alerts<\/p>\n
Get breaking news alerts delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DELTONA, Fla. \u2013 An emotional reunion unfolded in Deltona after a family was reunited with their beloved dog,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,5822,25,5904,5906,5905],"class_list":{"0":"post-6397","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ai","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-ai-scam","10":"tag-artificial-intelligence","11":"tag-deltona","12":"tag-dog","13":"tag-volusia-county"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}