HILLSDALE, N.J. —— A Maywood police bloodhound collared applause after leading her human partner to a missing man sheltering from the weather at a local bank’s ATM vestibule.
Police said the victim wandered off into the cold, dark of night around 12:30 a.m. from a New Year’s celebration without his jacket and other personal items.
At 5:30 a.m. he was reported missing. Officer Chris Nichols and his bloodhound partner, Remington, a year-old tracker, were detailed to find him.
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According to Police Chief David Pegg, Remington took the scent from the man’s jacket left at a restaurant and led Nichols to an ATM at a local bank a half-mile away.
There, Remi found the man huddled and clutching carpeting around him to keep warm. Nichols called EMTs.
“And that’s what these bloodhounds do: this is five, five-and-a- half hours later, the trail may be contaminated by this time, but she leads the officer right to him [the victim],” Pegg told Pascack Press.
Pegg said he does not know the man’s age or the reason he wandered off and settled for the ATM.
“Remi,” who’s been certified for just two months, recently joined Maywood’s other bloodhound, Zoey, on the force.
The two are Bergen County’s sole bloodhound corps. Pegg said the breed has more than proved its worth with the department.
Zoey is in remission from cancer—“for how long we don’t know,” Pegg said—and is receiving chemotherapy treatments. The department plans to retire Zoey in a month or so, Pegg said.
Pegg said Zoey is a star in her own right, in September 2017 having helped police build a case against a man charged with killing a nurse in a hit-and-run at a bus shelter at The Harborage in Hackensack Meridian Health Palisades Medical Center.
Zoey was able to help police reconstruct the suspect’s travels after he allegedly jumped the curb, hit the nurse, ditched his vehicle, and fled, seeking to escape by additional means.
“Bloodhounds are the only law enforcement K-9 able to scent discriminate, meaning they trail one scent, ignoring all others, to its conclusion,” Pegg told Pascack Press.
“This makes them extremely useful in situations involving contamination and lengthy time frames,” he added.
The breed’s long ears help funnel scent to the nose, part of the reason for its success, he said.
“Unlike a German shepherd, it’s not aggressive; it’s not going to go after people. It’s just going to track and find them, either a criminal [suspect] or, like in this case, an endangered person,” Pegg said.
Photo courtesy Maywood PD