{"id":258699,"date":"2026-05-05T02:17:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T02:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/258699\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T02:17:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T02:17:09","slug":"k-9-ruger-tracks-missing-autistic-teen-to-jacksonville-parking-lot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/258699\/","title":{"rendered":"K-9 Ruger tracks missing autistic teen to Jacksonville parking lot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!\n <\/p>\n

Good boy, Ruger! A hero police pup followed his nose to find a missing autistic teen<\/a> in a Florida parking lot, leading police straight to the rescue.<\/p>\n

The high-stakes hunt kicked off on April 21 after the terrified youngster vanished from his home, the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office said.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when K-9 Ruger and his partner<\/a>, Officer Chris Havens, swooped in to save the day. The four-legged officer smelled the missing teen\u2019s sock and began his search, police said.<\/p>\n

FOLLOW US ON X<\/a><\/p>\n

\"K-9 <\/p>\n

K-9 Ruger with the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office helped locate a missing teenager with autism on April 21, 2026. (Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office)<\/p>\n

Body camera video captured the rescue, with Ruger not missing a beat and dragging patrol officers through the brush and down to the intersection of Beach Boulevard and Ryar Road.<\/p>\n

GENTLE GIANT CROWNED AMERICAN HUMANE\u2019S 2024 HERO DOG FOR FINDING MISSING CHILDREN AND MORE<\/a><\/p>\n

The “paws-itive” ending came when cops heard the boy\u2019s screams for help coming from a nearby business lot.<\/p>\n

“You did a good job calling us over,” an officer is heard telling the teen in the body camera video. “When you see the police, you say something to them.”<\/p>\n

“We’re glad we found you, we were getting really worried,” he said.<\/p>\n

KIDS WITH AUTISM SUPPORTED BY SERVICE DOGS, AS RESEARCH AND FAMILIES NOTE ‘INCREDIBLE CHANGES’<\/a><\/p>\n

\"K-9 <\/p>\n

K-9 Ruger and Officer Chris Havens responded to reports of a missing teenager, using the scent from his sock to track him, the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office said in a Facebook post. (Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office)<\/p>\n

After a checkup, the boy was reunited with his frantic family.<\/p>\n

“When your loved one goes missing, we deploy our best tools<\/a> to find them quickly and safely,” the department said.<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Ruger <\/p>\n

A Jacksonville police dog is being praised after successfully tracking a missing autistic teenager by following the scent from a sock.\u00a0 (Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office via Facebook)<\/p>\n

As for Ruger, police said that the dog earned himself a chew toy.<\/p>\n

GET BREAKING NEWS BY EMAIL<\/a><\/p>\n

“Because he was able to lead officers close to the missing teen, K9 Ruger earned himself his favorite toy and plenty of \u2018Good boy!\u2019s!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Good boy, Ruger! A hero police pup followed his nose…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[13709,53482,28,18381,116,118,117,7107],"class_list":["post-258699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-autism","tag-cops","tag-florida","tag-heroism","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-police-and-law-enforcement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258699","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=258699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}