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A dog from Pennsylvania receives a $2000 reward for helping the police locate the escaped convict, Michael Burham, on Saturday, July 15.
The dog, named Tucker, received his cash reward during a news conference by the Warren Crime Stoppers on his owners’, Ron and Cindy Ecklund, Warren County, Pennsylvania home on Tuesday, July 18.
Burham escaped the Warren County Prison on July 7 and has been on the loose. And the six-year-old chocolate brown Labrador played a very important role in ending The Jamestown Police Department in New York’s nine-day search for the fugitive.
In a statement, the Police Department emphasized that the fugitive is very dangerous and wrote, “The public is asked to be vigilant and report anything out of the ordinary.”
And that’s exactly what Tucker did while he was exploring the woods behind his hoomans‘ home on Saturday afternoon.
Tucker saw Burham and started barking until his owners came to where he was.
Talking to ABC News, Ron Ecklund recounted the incident saying, “Usually if I call him he comes right back to the house. He wouldn’t, so I said, ‘Cindy, let’s get on the golf cart.’”
When the couple went out to investigate what Tucker has been barking at, they came face-to-face with the fugitive.
“Suddenly, this person stands up, and it’s Michael – I recognize him right away,” Ron continued.
During the news conference, Cindy Ecklund also revealed that the moment she and her husband recognized Burham, they quickly retreated.
“If you want to talk about how afraid we were, the 911 call people on the phone had to have thought I was nuts because I was pretty adamant and said, ‘Please get here. He’s in my backyard’,” Cindy recounted the story to ABC News.
The police immediately went to the scene to track down Burham, who they discovered as “tired and worn out”, and was now taken into custody, PEOPLE reports.
As for the goodest boy Tucker, his owners bought him new toys, a bucket of tennis balls, a new collar and a rib-eye steak dinner for his heroic discovery.
WKBW TV also reports that the $2,000 is only part of the $22,000 reward money that the couple and Tucker will be receiving. And the the remaining reward money will soon be given by the U.S. Marshals and Pennsylvania Crime Stoppers.
