Officer Andre and service dog Luna, an experienced German Shepherd, have been an unbreakable team for three years.
That day at the airport, Luna’s ears perked up and her tail stiffened as her eyes met those of a woman pushing a baby stroller.
There was something about that woman that disturbed Luna, and Officer Andre didn’t hesitate when he approached her. He knew Luna’s reaction wasn’t an empty response. Her instincts were sharp, and she had never made a mistake.
Something about that female passenger at Terminal D of Otopeni Airport wasn’t right, and Andre wouldn’t let it slip.
Luna started sniffing the baby that was wrapped in a blue blanket.
Suddenly, the experienced service dog let out a low, angry growl, attracting the attention of the passengers.
The pale, thin woman held the stroller’s handles but her hands were shaking.
“Take that dog away from my baby,” she yelled.
Officer Andre tried to pull Luna away from the stroller, but she didn’t obey. This was the first time in three years the service dog to fail to respond to her handler’s command.
Rather than backing off, Luna stepped closer and pulled the blanket and what appeared from under it shocked everyone.
There wasn’t a baby there but a thermal bag with labels written in Russian and Chinese and symbols of biological hazard. Inside, there were shiny containers that released strange odor.
Officer Andre quickly grabbed the woman by the arm and pulled her aside. He alerted the antiterrorist team of the incident.
“What is this?” Andre asked the woman.
She started crying, claiming she had no idea what it was, it was only her job to get it past security.
The area was cleared and locked down and emergency response teams and specialists in special gear took the thermal beg with the containers.
The materials, traced from unlawful Asian labs to a secret European facility, revealed an international trafficking ring of banned biological materials that could easily cause a biological disaster if released intentionally or accidentally.
Had it not been for Luna, the amazing service dog who sensed the presence of the materials hidden in the containers, a tragedy could have struck.