KING COUNTY, Wash. — The King County Sheriff’s Office is celebrating another gun off the street after their K-9 unit had an impressive find.
They say this happened after a man crashed his truck in Shoreline and tossed the gun, but deputies didn’t know exactly where.
KCSO Deputy Christina Bartlett said the crash resulted in a convicted felon being arrested on suspicion of DUI and possession of a gun, even though he tried to toss it before the deputies could see it.
However, that scavenger hunt was no match for Marley: one of KCSO’s explosive unit K-9s.
“This was her tenth find, super exciting, took her home, bought her a nice steak for dinner,” Bartlett said.
Marley and her handler, Deputy Bartlett, primarily work the Sound Transit routes. They walk through the stations, ride the trains, and engage with people who are commuting.
“She’s a little nosey sometimes; she gets up in people’s business, but they are appreciative of it and like to say hello,” Bartlett said.
The pair also gets called to help find guns or search for explosives whenever and wherever needed.
“The evidence we find in a lot of these gun cases are paramount to the cases, the prosecutors will use every bit of evidence they can find,” Bartlett said.
Deputy Bartlett took Marley on a training mission just for KIRO 7 through Westlake Station. She and her KCSO partner planted things for Marley to find; that way she gets rewarding practice looking for things that shouldn’t be in the stations.
She showed us how Marley methodically checks what they call “high probability spots”. Those are spots that could be hiding a bomb.
This way, if there ever is a threat, Marley is ready to respond quickly. Bartlett said it’s nice to be at the stations ready to respond because calling out the bomb squad usually takes several hours.
“It’s very quick for us to respond to suspicious packages, we’ve had a couple bomb threats on the trains, we get in there, get the dogs out and clear that and get the line back running,” Bartlett said.
Bartlett says with each of Marley’s finds, she is making King County a little safer than it was before.
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