Police dog tracks missing boy by his shoe

A POLICE dog sniffed out a young boy lost near a Cornwall river, after finding his shoe and following the boy’s scent.

The 15-year-old boy with learning difficulties had gone missing from his home in Bude on Sunday.
The dog, named Rufus, found the teenager in a multi-agency mission which also involved the Devon and Cornwall force helicopter, search and rescue volunteers and the Coastguard.

Rufus found a trainer on a riverbank and the boy was located soon after, cold and wet but unharmed. A police spokesman said: ‘Wider searches may have missed the missing boy with dire consequences.’