SUMTER, S.C. — Sumter Police have found their missing K-9 officer.
But Monday afternoon, the department shared the dog had been located and is safe.
Robert Singleton, Sumter Police Patrol Division Commander says, "We we're at our staging location when a member of the public knew who knew we we're out looking for Jake, actually came to us and flagged one of our officers, the person that flagged us down, took us to a residence that was nearby to the area we we're searching, and our officers went down there I met them down there and we confirmed it was Jake, he was very excited to see us probably as excited as we we're to see him."
Adding, "He's doing well, gave him some water and some electrolytes to help replenish him and he's headed to the vet as a precaution."
Jake had been missing since 8:30 a.m. on Sunday, in the cane Savannah and Apollo Street area of Wedgefield.
Singleton says they will work to prevent something like this from happening again, "With any incident that occurs there is a de-briefing part, lessons learned and we tend to do that."
As for K9 Jake, Singleton says, "He will probably get a couple of days off, I think."
The department shared on Sunday afternoon that Jake, one of its K-9 officers, got away from his tracking team after a search for a missing elderly person earlier in the day in the county. While the search was successful, Jake went missing.
Jake is a 3-year-old yellow lab. He's often used for tracking but is also involved in community engagement in schools and other public activities, so he can be approached. He is tall and slender and wearing a black harness with the words "Police K-9" on it.