{"id":179746,"date":"2026-03-05T20:37:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T20:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/179746\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T20:37:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T20:37:07","slug":"port-st-lucie-police-k-9-tracks-down-missing-special-needs-13-year-old-boy-wsvn-7news-miami-news-weather-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/179746\/","title":{"rendered":"Port St. Lucie Police K-9 tracks down missing special needs 13-year-old boy &#8211; WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>PORT ST. LUCIE, FLA. (WSVN) &#8211; &#8211; A canine hero is being credited with <a href=\"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/news\/local\/florida\/body-camera-video-shows-bloodhound-helping-officers-rescue-13-year-old-special-needs-teen-in-fort-pierce\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">tracking down a missing 13-year-old boy.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Port St. Lucie Police body camera video captured the moment Officer Robert Burdick and his bloodhound K-9 \u201cHoot,\u201d found a missing 13-year-old boy with autism in Fort Pierce, Monday night.<\/p>\n<p>The boy had just finished a workout and was waiting by a family member\u2019s car when, within seconds, he vanished.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe had walked out of the door, normally, as he always does, and in seconds, he was gone,\u201d said Well Fitness Center Owner Nicholas Burgos.<\/p>\n<p>Fort Pierce Police searched on foot and by air with a drone before calling in Port Saint Lucie Police\u2019s K-9 unit for help.<\/p>\n<p>Hoot began searching after sniffing a piece of the boy\u2019s clothing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are picking up that odor, that scent, whether it\u2019s sweat, things of that nature,\u201d said Officer Brittany McNally. \u201cThey have a much better keen sense of smell than humans do.<\/p>\n<p>After the boy\u2019s scent was detected, Hoot led the officers to him, who was found about a mile from the gym in the woods alongside the railroad tracks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely incredible, I mean, who doesn\u2019t love a good K-9 story with a great outcome and reuniting that family with that child? This is just a great, great outcome,\u201d said McNally.<\/p>\n<p>This time, the boy was found within two hours, but that\u2019s not always the case. According to advocates, children with autism wander away often, which could turn dangerous quickly.<\/p>\n<p>Gene Saunders is the founder and CEO of Project Lifesaver International. This non-profit organization supplies law enforcement agencies with devices to help track and locate people with autism or dementia.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m ecstatic, as long as they\u2019re found safely, whatever method they use, I think it\u2019s great,\u201d said Saunders.<\/p>\n<p>Saunders urges parents of autistic children to be extra cautious.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAutistic children can go in an instant for a lot of different reasons,\u201d said Saunders. \u201cI think the best thing the parents can do is be aware of their child at all times, know where they are, and you need to do as much as possible as often as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Port St. Lucie Police said K-9 Hoot has now helped find four missing children in just two years.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2025 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p>\tJoin our Newsletter for the latest news right to your inbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORT ST. LUCIE, FLA. (WSVN) &#8211; &#8211; A canine hero is being credited with tracking down a missing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179747,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-179746","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\/179746","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=179746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}