Beloved Police Dog, Officer Retire On Same Day
CHICAGO (WBBM) -- One of the Chicago Police Department's most productive dogs retired Tuesday, along with his handler.
Both will be missed.
Officer Mike Granberg said during a retirement ceremony at Chicago police headquarters that he has always been a dog person.
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"It's like my boy. He's my guy," Granberg said as his police dog Lexo, an 8-year-old German Shepherd still clad in a blue-and-white checkered police-issue collar, strained at his leash and whined, looking more perplexed than anything about being in front of reporters and half a dozen cameras.
Since Lexo was imported as a puppy from the Czech Republic in 2003 and trained as a police dog, he is credited with sniffing out $55.4 million in illegal drugs and thousands of dollars in drug money.
But Granberg said a different assignment with Lexo is the one he will remember the most. That was the frigid January day in 2007 that Lexo found a missing Alzheimer's patient unconscious but alive in the LaBagh Woods Forest Preserve.
"We didn't have clothing or anything like that (to pick up a scent)," Granberg said. In the area where we searched there was nobody else in there. A human scent came up and he was able to find the guy."
Granberg said the man was found lying on his side a few feet from the north branch of the Chicago River.
The man probably would have died within a short time from hypothermia but remains alive today, Granberg said.
Lexo was actually Granberg's fourth police dog. Dogs are not always retired at the same time as their handlers, but at the age of eight -- close to 60 in dog years -- department officials decided it would be too difficult to try to bond Lexo with another canine unit officer.
In retirement, Granberg expects Lexo to be like many other dogs -- eager to play with his owner, go on walks and take rides up and down the street.
Granberg drives a motorcycle, but he said that won't stop Lexo from getting his rides.
"We're going to get a motorcycle with a sidecar, and he's expressed interest that he wants to ride around the neighborhood so I guess that's what I'm going to do," Granberg said with a laugh.
