A K-9 officer helped police in Tewksbury locate and arrest a suspect early Friday morning after the man backed his car into a police cruiser, police said.
According to authorities, Tewksbury police officers were conducting a traffic stop when the operator of the vehicle, Edwin Figueroa Jr., intentionally backed the SUV he was driving into a cruiser before fleeing the scene. Though no human officers were in the vehicle at the time, a K-9 officer was.
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Sergeant Colin Trelegan said he was in the middle of a routine check when Figueroa drove straight into his cruiser which his K-9, Leo, was sitting in.
Luckily, both Trelegan and Leo were unharmed. "The second I checked on him, his ears were up. He wanted to go look for someone," Trelegan said of his K-9 partner. "He seemed completely fine, and were pretty fortunate."
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After an investigation, police said they discovered the SUV, which they say Figueroa had stolen, abandoned outside a home on Andover Street. When residents nearby reported seeing a man with a flashlight in the backyard, a K-9 unit was deployed in the area, police said.
Another officer and his K-9 partner, Binks, tracked Figueroa through the residential area, and found him in the woods behind a school, officials said.
Upon investigating, police said they found crack cocaine in the vehicle. Figueroa was arrested and brought to the Tewksbury Police Department for booking.
