In the city of DeLand, Florida, a police dog was able to find and securely return a youngster who had gone missing to his family.

A missing person complaint was filed with the DeLand Police Department on March 29 at roughly 11:30 a.m., according to a post that the department made on Facebook. The youngster in question was a boy who was three years old.

Immediately upon the notification that the youngster was missing, “all available assets and resources were deployed immediately as officers conducted a massive search, focusing on a wooded area behind the boy’s home,” the police agency noted.

In the end, however, it was a single police canine that proved to be the most significant element regarding the hunt. According to the information provided by the DeLand Police Department, “K-9 Midnight and his handler Corporal Clark searched through the woods using the boy’s blanket.”

The canine, which is trained to search for missing persons as well as drugs, picked up the smell of the child on a track in a wooded region and led officials to him, as said in the social media post. The canine is also trained to look for missing individuals.

According to Clark, who spoke to the local NBC station WESH, “He was dragging me through the woods, like he was just he wasn’t going to stop.”

The corporal informed the Florida publication that the police canine and handler had been on the ground for around forty-five minutes. He also said that it “feels like hours and hours and hours when you’re being dragged behind the dog through the woods.”

Clark said that Midnight received several scratches and scrapes while searching through the “very thick” woodland region. Midnight did not hesitate to hunt in the area where the forest was located.

“The dog was able to get to him much quicker than I was because I’m getting caught up in vines, and trees, and shrubbery and stuff like that,” he told the news organization.

The youngster was spotted by Midnight, and by the time Clark came up with him, the dog was “licking the little boy’s face, and he’s all over the little boy,” as the corporal described it.

And he is gazing back at me with an expression that says, ‘Hey, I got it. He continued by saying, “Here it is.”

In addition to being returned to his family in a secure and unhurt state, the little child was presented with a teddy bear by the law enforcement personnel, which he can be seen clutching in a photograph that was distributed by the department.

The boy is shown in the same image hugging a member of his family, with both of their faces obscured for the sake of privacy, and posing with three law enforcement officers and his hero, Midnight.

In addition to the photograph of the little kid with his family and the headshot of the police canine, the department also sent the following statement: “Good effort to all other teams involved! This is the end that we aspire to achieve under these circumstances, a safe return!

Clark shared with WESH that Midnight has been a member of the Florida Police Department since 2022. When he is not on duty, Midnight is a lovable puppy who enjoys playing ball.

When they are on the clock, however, the dog is completely focused on his work.

I am the one who is at the end of the leash. According to the handler, “All of the work is done by him.” “My job is just to read him, read his body language … and understand what he’s telling me because he can’t talk.”