{"id":201959,"date":"2025-09-05T09:38:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T09:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/201959\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T09:38:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T09:38:09","slug":"youtuber-rescues-abandoned-dog-after-owner-is-killed-in-watts-hit-and-run-nbc-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/201959\/","title":{"rendered":"YouTuber rescues abandoned dog after owner is killed in Watts hit-and-run \u2013 NBC Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"

A social media star famous for the work he puts into his cars is going viral for the work he put into saving a dog after his owner was killed.<\/p>\n

When a hit-and-run driver plowed into a cyclist in Watts on Aug. 18, that driver shattered more than one life. Leaving the cyclist dead and his four-legged companion alone in the world.<\/p>\n

“He kind of just paced around the canopy where they had his owner’s body,” said social media star Alex Choi. “Just started howling and whining, it was really sad.”<\/p>\n

The social media influencer is popular for car content<\/a>, but also shoots breaking news scenes. He says he came out to the hit-and-run investigation, and after asking around, determined the dog belonged to a man believed to be homeless.<\/p>\n

Choi decided he would help the distraught dog and take him in.<\/p>\n

“It took a lot of convincing at the scene of the accident for him to come with me,” said Choi. “I feel like he thought I was kidnapping him.<\/p>\n

But the pup’s troubles wouldn’t end there. After being taken to Choi’s home, he escaped the same day.<\/p>\n

Choi believes the dog was trying to get back to his owner, showing a trait closely associated with the Akita breed: loyalty.<\/p>\n

The dog was found two weeks after his escape by community members and now hardly lets Choi out of his sight. But much about him remains a mystery, even his name.<\/p>\n

“I just have to whistle or just yell dawg, ‘d-a-w-g,’ dawg!” said Choi.<\/p>\n

The next chapter for the dog? finding him a home. Choi\u2019s three other dogs are not warming up to the new rescue, but at this point, he says he can\u2019t bear to see them go to a stranger<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m trying to convince one of my friends to take him, maybe if this story comes out, one of my closer friends,” said Choi.<\/p>\n

Recently, the YouTuber had charges dismissed<\/a> by the U.S. attorney’s office stemming from a video Choi posted around July 4, 2023, titled “Destroying a Lamborghini With Fireworks,” that showed two women shooting fireworks out of a helicopter at a Lamborghini in a social media stunt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A social media star famous for the work he puts into his cars is going viral for the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":201960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,2961,224,5337,102313,3894],"class_list":{"0":"post-201959","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-los-angeles","12":"tag-losangeles","13":"tag-watts","14":"tag-youtube"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115151025264769778","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}