K-9 Unit Rescues 75-Year-Old Wellfleet Man With Dementia

EASTHAM (CBS) -- A heroic police dog saved the day Friday morning after an elderly man from Wellfleet went missing.

It all started when Eastham police were called to Hemenway Landing just before 8 a.m. for a report that a car was stuck in the mud off the road in a remote area. The car wasn't visible from a nearby parking lot, but had been spotted by an off-duty Eastham firefighter who was boating at the time.

The car, which police found empty, belonged to a 75-year-old man who suffers from dementia who had been reported missing on Thursday afternoon. Many search teams were deployed, including Barnstable County Sheriff's Deputy Jason Bernardo and his K9 partner Nick.

"I put him in the automobile, particularly on the driver's seat and the floor of the driver's side and just let him acclimate to the odor," said Deputy Bernardo.

Deputy Bernardo and Nick tracked the missing man for about half a mile and finally found him kneeling in the mud.

"His extremities were blue. His face was washed out. He couldn't speak," Deputy Bernado said. "He was unable to articulate sentences. You could tell he'd been out in the weather longer than a human should be."

The 75-year-old was evaluated at the hospital but his family said he's doing fine.

"Nick's phenomenal. He's way ahead of me," Deputy Bernardo said. "I'm the one that has to catch up to him. He knows how to track. He knows how to find people."

Deputy Bernado said this is not the first time Nick has helped find a missing person.