ALTAMONT, N.Y. (NEWS10) – The Albany County Sheriff’s office searching for one of their own. NEWS10 has the latest on the search that found a missing Sheriff’s K-9 unit.

Sheriff Craig Apple says Thompson AKA Ghost, a black Dutch Shepard trained to sniff out drugs, went missing from his handler’s yard late Sunday night.

“The K-9 handler, in the area of the village of Altamont, let his dog out and apparently it dropped its nose immediately. So, something must have come through the yard just prior to that. It’s all we can guess at this point. Because it dropped its nose and went into full mode and just took off,” explained Apple.

Ghost was last seen in the area of Bozenkill Park, which is where the sheriff set up the search party and pulled out all the stops.

“And we have, I was just looking, 12 to 13 people over there with their dogs, as well, and drones over there,” said the Sheriff. 

Ghost is three years old and has been on the force for two years. The sheriff says the department has invested a lot in these K-9’s as they are more than just tools to fighting crime.

“[It takes] a lot of training. The dogs themselves are from six to eight thousand [dollars] apiece. Let alone [the cost of] six months of training. So, the dogs are very expensive, very valuable,” said Apple. 

Valuable also because these K-9’s live with their handlers and become part of their family. This family thankful to be reunited after being missing for 12 hours. Thompson was very happy to be back in his partner’s care.