Man Ditches His Dog While Fleeing Police on a Scooter, So the Dog Leads Officers Right to Him

A Labrador retriever led the Cheshire Police to Charles Foy after he fled officers on an e-scooter in Runcorn, where he was later found hiding in his attic.

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A man fleeing police on an e-scooter was found after officers followed his Labrador retriever back to his home

The man was hiding in his attic and later sentenced to jail for multiple offenses, including driving while disqualified

Footage from the incident shows the police speaking to the dog

A man’s best friend became his undoing when his dog led police to his location after the owner fled authorities.

Cheshire Police said in an August 17 press release that Charles Foy, 41, was seen illegally riding an e-scooter on a public road in Runcorn, U.K., back in February, with his two dogs running alongside him. When officers asked him to pull over, Foy fled.

“During his escape attempt, one of the dogs running alongside the scooter, a Labrador, fell behind — unable to keep up with the high speeds of the e-scooter,” police shared, according to Storyful, which obtained footage of the incident. Officers then followed the left-behind dog back to Foy’s home, where they found the owner hiding in his attic under pieces of insulation.

Cheshire Police via Storyful

Footage from Cheshire Police shows an officer speaking gently to the distressed Labrador as it guides officers toward the home.

“Has he been a bad boy and left you?” the officer says to the dog, who then leads the team to an address on Beaconsfield Road in Runcorn, England, according to The Independent. The video continues with police following the dog to the home before Foy is escorted out of the attic and arrested.

Foy was sentenced to three months in jail for failing to stop for police, driving while disqualified, using a motor vehicle without insurance and failing to provide a drug test, police reported. The Independent noted Foy was also banned from driving for four years and three months.

Foy’s Labrador isn’t the first dog to lead officers to its owner, though others have done so under far more heroic circumstances.

According to previous PEOPLE reporting, in January 2022, a 1-year-old Shiloh Shepherd named Tinsley led New Hampshire State Police to her owner after his pickup truck rolled down an embankment near an interstate junction along the New Hampshire-Vermont border.

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Officers responding to a report of a loose dog followed Tinsley to the badly damaged truck, where they found her owner and another passenger severely injured and hypothermic after being ejected from the vehicle. A state police lieutenant called it “a real-life Lassie situation,” and credited the dog with saving both lives.