ESTHERVILLE – A lost Northern Iowa child was found with the help of police canine “Pepper”.
On August 16, 2021 at 8:15 PM, the Estherville Police Department was contacted by an outside agency requesting the assistance of canine Pepper in locating a missing child. The child had been missing for over 2 hours and several members of the community had been out looking for him with no success. Sgt. Reineke and canine Pepper arrived on scene at 8:43 pm and were able to secure an item of clothing the child had been wearing and a location where the child was last scene.
Pepper was taken to that location and given the command to track. Pepper did pick up the child’s scent and tracked across the roadway into a corn field. Pepper continued through the corn field and then out of the cornfield and down a wooded fence line. Pepper then went into the fence line and stopped. Sgt Reineke then went into the grass and trees to investigate and located the missing child at 8:48 pm The child was then returned to his family.
Pepper was purchased with the generous donations raised during a radioathon held by KILR radio back in June. Pepper was recently certified as a specialty Canine on August 3, 2021 in Sioux City, Iowa. Pepper was sworn in by Mayor Joseph May on August 20, 2021 as an official member of the police department.
