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The sheriff's office said deputies' bloodhound dog, Remi, used a K-9 reverse tracking device to help lead the child back to his home in Monroe, North Carolina.
CNN
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On July 7, emergency dispatchers in North Carolina received a call from a passerby reporting a child walking alone on a road in Union County.
According to a release from the Union County Sheriff's Office, when deputies arrived on the scene they were unable to locate the boy's home or his parents because he is autistic and non-verbal.
That's when the bloodhound Remi and his owner, Deputy Sheriff B. Berg, decided to attempt a “reverse” pursuit, an action that is “unusual” for a police dog, spokesman Lt. James May told CNN.
“Usually they follow a person from where they started and try to find where they are now. This time they were doing it in reverse,” May said.
To obtain the child's scent so Remi could track him, Berg “used sterile gauze to obtain odor samples from (the child's) forearm and the back of the neck. After about 15 minutes, Remi was able to return the child to his home in the neighborhood, about a half-mile away.
When police arrived, the garage door to the home was open, and police determined that a boy approximately 6 years old had left the home “in a covert manner that would not have been detected by his parents.”
The sheriff's office said officers confirmed the suspect had no criminal history and left information for the family to help prevent a similar incident from happening again.
Now that officers have witnessed Remi and other dogs able to do this, the technique will be incorporated into future police dog training. “I've been doing this for 10 or 12 years and I've never heard of anything like this. It's not something that police dogs are normally trained to do, but it's something that we're going to be incorporating into our training going forward,” May said.
Bloodhounds are known for their keen sense of smell, including the ability to distinguish human scents.
Remi is just one year old and has been with the police department since he was a puppy, and was trained by a dog trainer at the station, May said.
“I am extremely proud of the hard work and dedication our members put into their training and am pleased to be able to help a local family in need,” said Union County Sheriff Eddie Cathey.
