- Kuno, a police dog from the Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office, helped find a missing 3-year-old boy Monday night
- Body camera footage, obtained by PEOPLE, shows the moment another deputy rushes to the missing child after she was found by a police dog and drone operators
- “If we hadn’t located that kid when we did that, say three, four or five minutes, that kid might have wandered into one of those lakes, we would have had a different outcome,” Van Buren County Sheriff Daniel Abbott said.
Newly released body camera footage shows the moments after a police dog and his deputy handler found a missing toddler in Michigan on Monday.
Authorities responded to a home in Geneva Township around 4 p.m. local time after learning a 3-year-old boy was missing from a home on 68th Street, according to South Haven EMS and an incident report from the Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office, obtained PEOPLE.
Deputy Eric Calhoun and his police dog Kuno were among those who responded to the scene about 30 minutes after the child was last seen, The Independent reports. The duo reportedly found a footprint near the house, leading to a body of water less than a mile from the house.
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Kuno and Calhoun found the boy about 50 feet from the water, according to ABC affiliate WZZM i The Independent.
Drone operators with SHAES located the boy at the same time, according to the local agency.
Video of the incident, released by the Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office, shows another deputy rushing after Kun and Calhoun after the child was found. He can be heard saying “Hey buddy!” before he reached the crying child, who was looking for his mother.
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The child was only wearing a diaper when he was found. In the video, another deputy picked up the child and comforted him as he walked back toward Kun and Calhoun.
Van Buren County Sheriff Daniel Abbott is happy the case had a “good positive ending,” according to WZZM and NBC affiliate WOOD-TV.
“If we hadn’t located that kid when we did that, say three, four or five minutes, that kid might have wandered into one of those ponds, we would have had a different outcome,” Abbott added.
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The child returned home unharmed, according to SHAES.
This is the fifth child Kuno and Calhoun have had in their careers together. Kuno has been with the VBCSO since 2017, according to The Independent.
Abbott said Calhoun’s goal is “to have the number one dog in the state of Michigan, if not the nation,” according to WZZM. “This is a deputy who takes days off, organizes training sessions with other agencies so he can keep up with this dog,” he added.
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