Metro canine rescuer will receive reward

Karen Zekan

Friday, Aug. 15, 1997 | 9:36 a.m.

The man who found Breston, the Metro Police dog, after he escaped from his kennel during a weekend thunderstorm will soon be receiving a $500 reward.

A private citizen had put up the money after learning the dog was missing, and made the offer in hopes of getting Breston back home safe and sound.

The single request both the finder and the award giver made to police, though, is that they remain anonymous.

"We're respecting their wishes and really appreciate what they have done," said Officer Mike Horn, Metro's K-9 trainer. "We're just glad Breston's back."

A thunder clap during a torrential downpour Sunday is what police think spooked the 6-year-old Belgian Malinois into pulling on his chain link kennel door and popping open the latch.

By 5 p.m. Sunday when his family found his empty patio cage, Breston was off on what would become about an eight-mile journey that somewhere along the way must have seen him cross a freeway.

Officer Steve Junge, Breston's handler for the past two years, scoured his parents' neighborhood in the 3000 block of El Camino Road, near Spring Mountain Road and Jones Boulevard, where the 70-pound dog was being kept.

Junge's parents, his wife and their 5-month-old baby also took up the cause, knocking on doors and posting fliers around town of the red and brown-coated dog with a black muzzle.

Fellow K-9 officers, the search-and-rescue unit, patrol and the air unit joined in when not on other calls, following up on citizens' sightings over the next 39 hours.

About 11 p.m. Monday, while police and volunteer citizens were searching near Sahara Avenue and Jones, an anonymous man driving home spotted a dog lying on the side of the road, completely worn out, near Rampart Boulevard and Vegas Drive, Horn said.

"He approached the dog, and it seemed friendly, so he brought it home and put it in his back yard," Horn said. "The dog was just happy go lucky back there. He gave him some food and he seemed to be OK."

Horn wasn't sure if it was through a local morning television or radio news broadcast about a missing K-9 dog that the man learned about 8 a.m. Tuesday that the dog he'd found might be Breston.

"He called us and described the dog," Horn said. "When he told us about the tattoo in the dog's ear, we knew it was Breston."

Officers drove to the house but they had to be quick about taking the dog -- the man who found Breston wanted nothing to do with the media or their television cameras, which had been following Horn around all night.

"I would never have guessed he'd be there," Horn said. "We'd had a few reports of a dog up there. One turned out to be a coyote, and another was a shepherd."

It was an emotional moment for the K-9 section, but none more so than Junge who for almost two days paced the streets with nervous adrenaline and slept little.

"You could see it in his face when he finally saw Breston," Horn said. "That dog is both his pet and his partner. They spend so much time together on the streets and training. It's an extra strong bond."

Junge and Breston took home two third-place awards in the area and building search categories at the 1996 Las Vegas K-9 Trials featuring 46 of the top K-9 teams in the Southwest.