Escambia County Sheriff's K-9 escaped

For the second time in a week a dog from the Escambia County Sheriffs Office has escaped from his handlers vehicle.

Earlier this week, a dog escaped from his handler's vehicle, and ran into a home improvement store. Last week, a different dog broke out of a different County vehicle in Heritage Oaks trailer park.

Both dogs got out of a 2009 Ford Crown Victoria.

Captain Gary Montee, the officer in charge of fleet maintenance, said there are four of K-9 vehicles in service.

Each handler has a safety device that alerts his dog when he is in trouble.

"If the handlers are in a situation where if the situation deteriorates and the handler needs assistance from the dog, the handler has a remote control on his belt which radio controls a unit in the car, which triggers a relay, which opens the door to the car", said Captain Montee.

In Tuesday's incident, two witnesses said they heard a loud click coming from the handlers car, just before the back door opened.

"The dogs are trained to push the door open when they hear the click and respond to the handler", said Captain Montee.

That's what each dog did. They thought their handlers were in distress, so they ran to their aid.

In the second situation, the handlers "bail out remote" was on his gunbelt, which was in the trunk of the vehicle when the door opened.

"The handler didn't even have the unit with him, so something activated the unit, or somebody opened the door", said Captain Montee.

The vehicle that was involved in the incident at Heritage Oaks has been pulled off the road. Nothing about the vehicle has been altered. It will be sent to an independent firm in Pensacola that specializes in accident reconstruction and product liability. There, they will attempt to recreate what happened that day and fix the problem.

"We're wanting to eliminate things and we thought by bringing an outside contractor in here that does this, and to look at this, we will be able to find the answer out", said Captain Montee.

A woman was injured in the first incident at Heritage Oaks.
Officials said the dog was just doing what he was trained to do in that situation.

No one was hurt in the second incident.

Captain Montee said Sheriff Morgan is extremely concerned for the publics safety, and is trying to get the problem resolved as quickly as possible.