LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Police in Kentucky are crediting a neighborhood dog for helping locate a missing 3-year-old child last month.
The dog, nicknamed “Louisville Lassie” by media outlets in Louisville, Kentucky, was a key reason officers were able to find the boy on Jan. 7, WAVE reported.
Members of the Louisville Metro Police Department were alerted about a missing child when his parents could not find him, according to the television station.
In a video posted on Facebook, police from the Seventh Division were searching on foot, with a drone and the department’s Air Unit.
That is when a neighborhood dog inserted himself into the search, WHAS reported.
Officer Josh Thompson said a neighbor pointed him to a house where the boy may have been. While he searched outside, the dog began walking next to him.
“He’s barking, chirping at me a little bit, and he continues following me to the front porch,” Thompson told the television station.
After searching the home, the dog continued barking and led officers to an SUV parked in the backyard where the boy was found, WLKY reported.
Officers then had to convince the frightened child to unlock the vehicle, according to WAVE. The boy was unharmed and reunited with his family, police said.
“Lassie found him,” police officers can be heard saying in the Facebook video.
Sean Calloway, who lives in the neighborhood, called the dog “a hero.”
“He’s always out here like this, but he’s a good dog,” Calloway told WLKY. “He’s always chasing me on my bike. He’s just having fun. He don’t bite nobody.”
“I’ve never seen that dog before, I have not seen it since in that neighborhood,” Thompson told WHAS. “I’ve patrolled the neighborhood for two years, I don’t know where that dog came from but it was a blessing from God that day.”
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