Greene Police K-9 assists NY State Police on Drug Search
Steven Dutcher and K-9 Ozzie, Greene Police Department
On Sunday May 30th 2004 Officer Steven Dutcher and K-9 Ozzie were home enjoying a night off. At approximately 7:00 p.m. Dutcher received a call from the Sidney State Police dispatcher asking if he would be available to respond with K-9 Ozzie to State Rte 41 in Afton NY to do a K-9 search of a vehicle that the Troopers had Stopped for suspicious activity. The vehicle was occupied by 3 white Russian males and 1 White Russian female. The Troopers believed they smelled the odor of Marihuana in the vehicle and were given consent to search the vehicle by the driver/registered owner. After doing a "Routine" search of the vehicle they did not turn up any contraband. Officer Dutcher responded from his residence and arrived on the scene within 20 minutes. The vehicle was a 2001 Nissan Maxima. The Troopers had taken all the contents out of the trunk and displayed it on the shoulder of the road. Dutcher deployed Ozzie and had him do a sniff of the luggage. Ozzie did not alert on any of the contents of the vehicle.
Dutcher then deployed Ozzie to the open trunk area of the vehicle. Ozzie almost immediately showed interest in the front of the trunk area which would be the back of the back seat. Ozzie took a few strong sniffs and began scratching and biting at the back of the seat. Dutcher removed Ozzie from the trunk and deployed him to the rear seat. Again showing strong interest in the crack between the seat and the seat back. After pulling the bottom of the seat out Dutcher discovered 12 individually wrapped 2" square baggies of marihuana. Dutcher then deployed Ozzie in the driverside front and Ozzie immediately began scratching and biting at the fuse box door located on the left side of the steering wheel. Dutcher removed the door and found a baggie containing 1 1/2 oz of marihuana. Dutcher then let Ozzie have "Free run" of the vehicle and Ozzie indicated on the dash area behind the glove box. Upon searching the back of the dash behind the glovebox several small packets of heroine were discovered.
This find resulted in 4 felony arrests and was a very good career builder for Dutcher and Ozzie. It was also a good lesson learned that if you find something somewhere in the vehicle don't end your search, because chances are there is more somewhere else in there.