Back in her prime, "Ginger," a golden retriever, was known as a driven drug-sniffing dog.
Today, now in well into her retirement, Ginger should be enjoying some well-deserved down time, but her nose still "knows" when there is a scent deserving of her specially trained attention.
According to Thursday's publication of the Sun Journal, 10-year-old Ginger let her nose lead the way to a parked truck on Sunday afternoon during a stroll along the beach near Lubec, Maine with her owner, Washington County Sheriff Donnie Smith.
Smith was momentarily stumped when Ginger left his side and wandered away, failing to return when he called.
When he spotted her moments later, he saw her sitting next to a parked truck with her paw on the door - her signal for a possible "drug" find.
Sure enough, Ginger's nose was on the money - inside of the pick-up were two men who were injecting a drug, later determined to be morphine, into their arms.
Even though Smith was not carrying a gun, or even a cellphone, he approached the men inside of the vehicle.
After chatting with the pair, Smith convinced them to hand over their own cell phone so that he could phone the authorities.
Deputies later arrested Jesse Reed, 23, and Ian Campbell, 29 for drug possession - all thanks to Ginger and her still-on-duty nose.
Smith shared his thoughts about his retired canine friend:
“I thought she had lost interest, but apparently not,”
“I took her back to the same beach the next day, and she went to the same spot. I thought, don’t do that … you’re going to get me killed.”
Read more here.
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