ATHENS, W.Va. (AP) - A new face featuring four legs could be seen Wednesday riding in a local police cruiser and learning about the town and area where he will protect and serve.
With help from the Athens Town Council and the town’s residents, Officer in Charge C.T. Lowe of the Athens Police Department now has K-9 partner named Mathias.
“He’s a Doberman Pinscher,” Lowe said. “He’s from Serbia. He was bred in Serbia and exported to Germany, then he was trained in German. They drove him to Holland, and they flew him from there to Washington, D.C.”
Once Mathias arrived in the United States, Makor K9 of WV went to Washington, D.C. and brought him to their facility in the Glades Springs area.
“And then we were able to buy him,” Lowe stated. “He’s already trained in executive protection; basically, he takes care of me.”
Mathias knows his basic commands, and Lowe will work on training him for article searches which occur when police need to find a weapon, crack pipe or another piece of evidence that a suspect has thrown away. Lowe said there are also plans to train him for detecting narcotics and for tracking lost people or fleeing suspects. There are also plans for him to work on public awareness.
“There are two things we want to do,” Lowe said. “We want to work with Police Explorers when that starts back up, and then the other thing we want to do is go to hospitals and see some kids. I’d like to take him there and lift their spirits. He’s going to be a community guy. He’s a positive, toy-driven dog. He’s got great drive.”
Playing with a ball gives Mathias positive reinforcement. Lowe didn’t know any other Dobermans currently in law enforcement work except for Duke, a K-9 in California.
“And he’s a rock star, and we’ve got to live up to that. Don’t we, buddy?” Lowe told Mathias while speaking to the Bluefield Daily Telegraph. “We want to go to work every day and do some good.”
Lowe worked with other law enforcement agencies with K-9 units when the town decided to acquire Mathias.
“We reached out to the Mercer County Sheriff’s Office, Princeton Police Department and Bluefield Police Department, and they were very helpful,” Lowe said.
Both the Athens Town Council and local residents reached out when the decision was made to get a K-9. In two weeks, there were $13,000 in donations.
“I can’t commend the town enough. The mayor and the town council were behind the dog 100 percent. We took in enough donations to pay for the dog,” Lowe recalled. “We were able to buy the dog through the generosity of the citizens of Athens. Ceres Machine Shop was our first donor and it took off from there.”
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