West Sacramento Police K-9 Helps Officer Sniff Out Lost Keys In Large Field

WEST SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - A police K-9 came to the rescue of a fellow police officer, not searching for a suspect but for her keys.

A field with tall grass is the last place you would want to lose your keys, unless of course you had a little extra help.

"He's a great asset, we love him to death," Officer Brooke Angle.

She needed K-9 Zar's help Saturday night after losing her keys while chasing a suspect on foot in West Sacramento.

"Probably wouldn't have tried (looking for the keys) for very long, I mean it's a huge area," Angle said.

So after she arrested the bad guy, K-9 Officer Roger Kinney and Zar decided to take a sniff at it and see if they could find the keys -- they did.

"I'll tell him 'let's start playing' and that's his command to 'let's find the article.' So we went out there and it took him 45 seconds to a minute," said Kinney.

However, Zar wasn't alerting the team the way he normally does, so his handler knew this was a little different.

"I look and there's a dead raccoon with his teeth sticking up and I'm like 'oh' and the keys are right on top of the raccoon's belly," said Kinney. "He's smart enough to know 'that's kind of nasty dad, I don't want to touch it.' "

So its not surprising that with his skills Zar's got lots of new friends barking up his tree as the neighborhood's new lost and found expert -- man's best friend with the keys to success.

"Shoot, I could use him at home, find a lot of things that are missing probably," said Angle.

Zar is almost 7 years old, so he still has some good years left to find plenty more keys.