Stray dog eludes determined officer for days in NC town — so he crafts an odd plan
A determined cop met his match when he and an equally stubborn stray dog squared off on the streets of Sapphire, North Carolina.
But even with their battle of wits now over, it’s tough to figure out who truly came out on top.
The dog was at risk of freezing as temperatures dropped into the teens, so Blue Ridge Public Safety Officer Sean Holcom made multiple attempts to catch it — including a golf cart chase.
He eventually came up with the idea of lying flat in the middle of the road with a piece of rotisserie chicken on his belly.
And, of course, a photo of him doing just that ended up on Facebook for all to see.
“This dog was loose for four or five days — and was covering several miles every day — but every time someone tried to grab her collar, she’d book it,” Holcom told McClatchy News.
“I tried lying on ground, trying to get her to come toward me. We tried cheese and dog treats and each time, she came closer and closer. She was eating off my chest, but every time I tried to go for the collar, she’d run.”
Rotisserie chicken was the last straw, but the trick didn’t work out as planned.
After toying with Holcom and fellow Officer Brady Wise, the dog ate the chicken before running off and jumping in the car of a passing driver on U.S. 64.
The driver was not the dog’s owner, or even a friend of the owner. He was just a man who saw a dog running in traffic and decided to offer it a ride.
“He opened the door and the dog hopped right in the car,” Holcom said. “I’d like to guess we just wore her out and she gave up running.”
The dog was taken to the local Humane Society and remains unclaimed.
Meanwhile, the photo of Holcom lying in the road has earned him praise, including titles like “hero” and the “dog whisperer” on social media.
“This is priceless,” one woman wrote on Facebook.
“I love this man!” another posted.
Holcom says the seemingly odd idea came from his time working with dogs at a kennel while serving in the U.S. Army.
“I knew that lying down so the dog was not looking up at me would help if she was scared,” he says.
Sapphire is about 150 miles west of Charlotte in the mountains of southern North Carolina.
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