One of Police newest canine recruits is quickly making a name for herself as a feared crime fighter – and ensuring the memory of a former colleague lives on.
Police Dog Pancho has only been operational for a few weeks after graduating from our in-house breed and training programme.
The Belgian Malinois, who turns two next month, is poignantly named after former detectives, DC Andrew Taylor, who sadly passed away in 2018. He was known as Pancho to his colleagues in West Midlands Police.
Despite being a rookie member of our Canine Corps PD Pancho has really hit the ground running since being partnered with dog handler PC Dan Benton last month.
And they demonstrated their teamwork in the early hours of this morning (11 Nov) to sniff out two suspected car thieves who’d gone to ground in a scrap metal yard.
PD Pancho now…and only a few days old
The pair were coming towards the end of their overnight shift when they were called to Wolverhampton following a police pursuit of a stolen car.
The Ford Fiesta – stolen four days earlier in Kingswinford – had sped away from a patrol car and at one stage driven on the wrong side of the A4123 dual carriageway.
Two suspects were arrested as the car was abandoned in Anchor Road at 4.15am but two others scaled metal fencing into a nearby compound where they tried lying low among the scrapped vehicles.
That’s when PD Pancho did her thing.
Handler PC Dan Benton explained: “She tracked a scent from the fencing into the yard. There must have been around 100 cars in there but she was paying particular attention to one row.
“I couldn’t see anything but she was insistent. Pancho jumped on the bonnet of one of the cars and started indicating at the door. That’s when I spotted a pair of legs sticking out from underneath a pile of car seats.
“I threatened to release the dog and, unsurprisingly, the lad came out and quickly followed by another chap who was hiding nearby.
“It was all Pancho’s work…she sniffed them out.”
Two men aged 20 have also been arrested for car theft, including the driver who will also be questioned on suspicion of dangerous driving, failing to stop for police and driving while disqualified.
Police sure DC Taylor would have been proud at Pancho’s determination to catch the crooks.