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HANOVER TWP. — At 7 a.m. Saturday, Ado, the suspect-apprehension, narcotic-sniffing K-9 for Hanover Township police, will retire.
Ado (pronounced Otto), a 9-year-old Malinois, will spend the rest of his life with his longtime partner, officer Mark Stefanowicz.
“He is a great dog and has been very productive in his work,” Police Chief Albert Walker said via email.
Ado came into service for the township in 2009 as Stefanowicz’s second police K-9.
During a phone call before Ado’s last shift, a midnight to 7 a.m. graveyard shift, Stefanowicz recalled some proud moments with the dog — such as working side-by-side with Pennsylvania State Police during the Eric Frein manhunt and tracking a suspect in the “worst possible” conditions in 2011.
A lady was robbed at knifepoint at the CVS on the Sans Souci Parkway. Ado, in a downpour, helped the police track the suspect to a home in Wilkes-Barre about three-quarters of a mile, Stefanowicz said. Because of Ado’s help, police were able to get a search warrant for the home, recover the woman’s belongings and send the robber to prison for 10-18 years.
“I was amazed he was able to track in that weather,” Stefanowicz said, noting Ado’s specialty was narcotics.
He said Ado was asked to assist with a search in West Wyoming last year. During the search, Ado hit on a car’s engine compartment where police found 2,000 bags of heroin in the car’s air filter.
“His drug record is outstanding,” Stefanowicz said.
Ado’s final drug bust came Tuesday, when officers served a search warrant on Diamond Street — 500 packets of heroin, along with cash, cell phones and drug paraphernalia were found.
Stefanowicz said the career span of a police dog is four to five years, but Ado has been with the township “longer than average” at eight years. He could go another six months to a year, Stefanowicz said, but the dog is starting to show fatigue on his hips.
Police dogs, Stefanowicz said, are not American-bred dogs. Ado came from the Czech Republic.
“We know their 100 percent bloodline,” Stefanowicz said.
When Ado was brought to Hanover Township in 2009, the cost was $7,000. Stefanowicz said his first dog, a German shepherd named Rikki, cost near $4,000. And now, an average police dog costs around $10,000.
Walker said K-9s are an asset to any police force and, for that reason, he has “already started discussions with our Board of Commissioners on keeping the K-9 program going with a new dog.”
Stefanowicz said in his 18 years of working with K-9s, he never had to physically release the dog to get a suspect.
“They would rather fight two or three cops than a K-9,” Stefanowicz said. He said the “mere presence” of Ado — and Rikki — meant that on Stefanowicz’s watch, a police officer was never assaulted and a suspect has never resisted arrest. “That just can’t be measured.”