Call the paw-lice!
A source tells us that Upper East socialite and businessman Stephan De Kwiatkowski was met by cops on an international flight over a misunderstanding about having the correct papers for his aging, 15-pound “Poochon” (Poodle-Bichon Frise) service dog, Charlie.
Stephan is the son of Henryk De Kwiatkowski, an aerospace engineer who owned Kentucky’s famed Calumet Farm, which breeds champion thoroughbreds, and was enmeshed in the racing scene.
In 2000, the late De Kwiatkowski, who died in 2003, was awarded $164.5 million from Bear Stearns following a claim that the brokerage firm did not warn him about trading risks.
According to a source, Stephan was on his way to India to try and get Charlie, 20, special Ayurvedic veterinary treatment.
Ayurveda started in India over 3,000 years ago and uses nutrition and natural treatments.
According to John Hopkins it (for humans, at least) it’s “based on the idea that each person has certain life forces (doshas) and everything in the universe is connected. An imbalance in [one] area can affect another. When the imbalance is not fixed, disease and illness can occur.”
Stephan was also going to work on an AI project, we hear.
While Stephan, who also works as an artist, had the correct papers for his final destination with his pup, he was not aware he needed separate papers for the layover in London, we hear.
A source tells us that about an hour into the flight from New York, an eagle-eyed flight attendant noticed the dog on the plane and asked for paperwork.
When Stephan didn’t have it, she called ahead and cops were waiting when they landed.
“Police came onto the plane,” says the source. “And a woman who was some sort of animal control.”
After being escorted off the flight, we hear a distraught Stephan had his prized canine taken away, and was trailed by airport employees until he was able to book another flight back to the states.
When he boarded, he was reunited with his inseparable best friend, Charlie.
We hear both dog and owner are home safe, but that the flight back was much less ruff.
A source tells us that Stephan was honestly just confused about the rules, and “learned a valuable lesson.”
Stephan, we hear, owns a place in the exclusive billionaire enclave of Lyford Cay, Bahamas — and that Charlie has all the correct papers to travel there.
