Burglar hounded by Holmes

Doglinks' is in the news!!

06 May 2006

Christchurch pooch called Sherlock Holmes proved his crimefighting credentials by sniffing out a dairy robbery in progress and helping police put the burglar in the human doghouse.

Sherlock Holmes, or Holmes for short, alerted his owner Blair Anderson to a burglary at the Wainoni Dairy while out for an early-morning walk last July. The case came to court this week.

The 10-year-old beagle-border collie-cross dragged Anderson across the road and about 50 metres towards the dairy, barking incessantly, after the canny canine detected something was wrong, his owner said. Outside the locked dairy, Anderson said he heard someone smash a window and drop what sounded like a crowbar.

Man and dog ran back to their house, where Anderson called 111.

With police and their sniffer dog, Holmes and Anderson tracked the burglar, who was hiding in the bushes several hundred metres from the scene of the crime.

Between the dairy and burglar Robert Boyd's hideout, a trail of black clothing, a crowbar and a backpack were found, Anderson said.

The burglar was arrested, and the rest is elementary, my dear Watson.

Boyd this week pleaded guilty in the Christchurch District Court to burglary and providing false details to police.
He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, a result police say was largely due to Holmes' dogged detection.

Constable Chris Caldwell, one of the police officers who arrested Boyd, said he may have escaped if Holmes and his owner had not got involved.

Caldwell said that because police got a call from Anderson while the crime was in progress, and he was able to point out the direction the offender had gone, the professional sniffer dog was able to get on the trail of the robber.
By KIM THOMASA