KCSO K9 Nero home safe after missing for more than 12 hours
KERSHAW COUNTY, S.C. (WOLO): After more than 12 hours on the run, K9 Nero with the Kershaw County Sheriff’s Office is back home safe.
Nero went missing around 10:30 p.m. Monday night in the Hunter’s Crossing Subdivision. Officials say Nero and his handler were playing ball outside in the fenced-in backyard, but he was spooked by fireworks and hopped the fence.
Chief Deputy Steve Knafelc said “it’s one of those things where it’s a normal dog with lighting and thunder and fireworks, anything loud, will probably spook him.”
Officers described Nero as a Houdini dog, saying he loves to run and play. When Nero didn’t come home by 10 a.m. Tuesday morning, that’s when Sheriff Lee Boan called in the bloodhounds with black river search and rescue.
“It’s just another day on the job,” said founder and primary handler, Karl Allen.
Allen began the search at Nero’s home, the last place he was seen. Then he says, the dogs get to work tracking his scent.
“We usually use a scent item of the dogs. In this particular case, we used Nero’s kennel from his truck, but I also had a back up. I swabbed his kennel with a 4×4 gauze pad and I borrowed one of his favorite toys, a tennis ball, that had his fur on it.”
But those scents were never really put to use. Nero was found by two men miles away on 34 shortly after the Black River Search and Rescue team arrived, and because Nero was reported missing early on, Allen says their tracking becomes a little easier as well.
“Most dogs we find try to circle back to their own home. Nero’s trail went along one of the fences and then it cut across, went to the alleyway and through a yard that didn’t have a fence, and then turned left on a street and went that way, so it was obvious he was trying to find his way home,” explained Allen.
Kershaw County Sheriff’s say they’ll re-examine how 8 year-old Nero escaped, but don’t believe his handler did anything wrong.
“He was inside of a fence. These dogs are treated in a very special way for sure.”
