{"id":177836,"date":"2026-03-04T14:28:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T14:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/177836\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T14:28:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T14:28:07","slug":"k-9-hoot-leads-florida-police-to-missing-autistic-boy-in-woods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/177836\/","title":{"rendered":"K-9 Hoot leads Florida police to missing autistic boy in woods"},"content":{"rendered":"

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A collaboration between police departments and the community led to the safe recovery of a missing 13-year-old boy with autism, who was found wandering in a wooded area after an hour-long search.<\/p>\n

The Port St. Lucie Police Department <\/a>said that the search began just after 5 p.m. when the Fort Pierce Police Department <\/a>received a report of a missing child in the 2700 block of US Highway 1. <\/p>\n

After initial searches by multiple officers, surveillance footage showed the boy walking toward a nearby neighborhood on Grand Club Place.<\/p>\n

See also: Liquid Courage? Allegedly drunk 79-year-old woman accused of punching cop in face<\/a><\/p>\n

Fort Pierce police then requested assistance from the Port St. Lucie Police Department\u2019s K-9 unit around 6 p.m., while their Drone Unit began sweeping the area.<\/p>\n

Officials said that K-9 Officer Burdick and his bloodhound, Hoot, tracked the boy\u2019s scent straight to a wooded area next to a railroad track. Meanwhile, the Fort Pierce Police Department’s Drone Unit illuminated the area and spotted the missing child.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A collaboration between police departments and the community led to the safe recovery of a missing 13-year-old boy with autism, who was found wandering in a wooded area after an hour-long search. (PSLPD)<\/p>\n

Thanks to the teamwork between the two police departments, the boy was safely located and reunited with his family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A collaboration between police departments and the community led to the safe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-177836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}