K-9 leads police to missing autistic teen

PORT ST. LUCIE, FL – A police K9 bloodhound named Hoot came to the rescue after a 13-year-old Florida boy disappeared.

Port St. Lucie police bodycam video captured the moment when officer Robert Burdick and K9 Hoot found a missing 13-year-old autistic boy in Fort Pierce.

The boy had finished a workout at Live Well Fitness Center on US1 and was waiting by the car when within seconds, he vanished at about 5:20 in the evening.

“He had walked out of the door normally, as he always does, and in seconds, he was gone,” fitness center owner Nicholas Burgos said.

Fort Pierce police searched on foot and used a drone, eventually calling Port St. Lucie police and their K9 Hoot. After sniffing a piece of the boy’s clothing, the bloodhound started searching.

“They are picking up that odor, that scent, whether it’s sweat, things of that nature,” Port St. Lucie’s Brittany McNally said. “They have a much better keen sense of smell than humans do.”

After picking up the boy’s scent, K9 Hoot took the officers right to the boy. He was found around 7 p.m. about a mile from the gym in the woods alongside railroad tracks.

“It’s absolutely incredible. Who doesn’t love a good canine story with a great outcome and reuniting that family with that child?” McNally said. “This is just a great, great outcome.”

The boy was found within two hours, but that’s not always the case. Advocates say children with autism wander away often and the situation can turn dangerous quickly.

“I’m ecstatic,” Project Lifesaver International’s Gene Saunders said. “As long as they’re found safely, whatever method they use, I think it’s great.”

Saunders, founder and CEO of Project Lifesaver International, a nonprofit organization that supplies devices to law enforcement agencies to help track and locate people with autism or dementia, says parents of autistic children need to be extra cautious.

“Autistic children can go in an instant for a lot of different reasons,” Saunders said. “I think the best thing that the parent can do is be aware of your child at all times, know where they are. You need to do as much as possible as often as possible.”