A 16-year-old girl who was kidnapped and dragged into the woods by her hair is likely alive today thanks to a Bloodhound named Deja’s amazing sense of smell.
A woman from Twin Peaks, Calif., called the police in the middle of the night Monday and said her granddaughter had been fighting with her boyfriend, 18-year-old Logan Padberg, in her home. When she asked Padberg to leave, he took her granddaughter with him.
Deputies then got a 911 call from someone saying he was awakened by a woman’s screams for help. The caller looked outside and saw a man holding a flashlight and dragging the teenager by her hair into the woods. When they arrived at the scene, the police found her purse and fresh drag marks at the scene.
Deja, a 4-year-old Bloodhound who’s a K-9 deputy with the Rancho Cucamonga Police Department, was called to the scene with her handler, Deputy Josh Stone.
“I used a piece of her clothing that contained her scent and I gave it to Deja like I always do,” Stone told KTLA. “I presented it to her and said, ‘check it.’ She smelled it and she knows who she wants to look for.”
Deja ran through the woods and stopped on the porch of a house.
Deputies did a forced entry and found Padberg and the girl inside the house. Padberg was arrested and booked on suspicion of kidnapping, domestic battery and unlawful sex with a minor, KABC reports. He was held on $250,000 bail at the San Bernardino Central Detention Center.
The girl was released to her mother — and hopefully she gave Deja a big, well-deserved hug.
“Great work by K-9 Deja and the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Station,” wrote the Rancho Cucamonga Police Department on its Facebook page. Hear, hear!
Photo via Facebook