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There’s nothing scarier than when a family member goes missing. In those emergency situations it is vital that they be found as soon as possible.
Luckily, police departments have a crucial ally that can make finding people faster and easier: police dogs.
Dogs have an incredible sense of smell that has long been used for tracking. Today a trained K9 can do incredible things. That’s what one family found out when a dog sniffed out their missing loved one… and without a moment to spare.
On the morning of Wednesday, October 30, an 85-year-old woman named Loreta Dabajo was discovered missing from here Belleville, New Jersey home.
Her son, Christopher Dabajo, went to wake her at 9 am and discovered she was not in her room, CBS New York reported.
The family searched for hours. After no success, they called the police.
The situation was serious: Loreta reportedly suffers from memory loss, and has back problems and difficulty walking. Plus, she was thought to be lost in the wooded area outside her home, putting her at serious risk of harm.
Luckily, the Essex County Sheriff’s Department had a K9 on their team who was there to lead the way.
The dog sniffed Loreta’s pillows to get her scent. Neighbors watched as the dog went to work.
“They spent a lot of time walking back and forth,” one neighbor told CBS New York. “The dog was going to different backyards.”
After a few hours of searching, the K9 led the officers into the wooded area, and there they found Loreta.
She was lying face down, with no memory of what had happened. She has a large cut on her hand, but is otherwise okay and recovering in a hospital now.
But it’s easy to think about how things may have gone differently if they had found her any later.
The family is now breathing a sigh of relief knowing that Loreta is going to be okay, and they thank the police dog who found her.
“That dog is like a hero for us,” Christopher Dabajo added.
Let’s hear it for the police tracking dogs for all the invaluable work they do to keep people safe!
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