HOULTON — Jerry Hammond and his K-9 Dorsta are retiring soon, and Tom Horten will be taking his place with a new canine. The cost of training an officer and canine is $28,000, which to some may seem like a lot, but the amount of seized property in just one search can pay for that quickly. They train for both narcotics and explosives, though not at the same time.
Contributed photo/Michael Clark
SPECIAL GUESTS — The Houlton Rotary Club had special visitors recently when members of the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol visited. Taking are from left, Chris Sullivan, Jerry Hammond and K-9 Dorsta, Rotary President Amy Hocking and Tom Horten of CBP Canine Unit.
Hammond and Dorsta gave Rotarians a presentation with Dorsta finding four hidden packages, which had small amounts of paraphernalia in them. He came into the room with Jerry leading, but when Dorsta got a sniff of narcotics she stopped and then smelled around and sat a close as possible to the package. Then she would receive her “pay,” which was a rolled up towel that they play together with for a few moments. Then off to the next one and she found each one with out any hesitation.
Rotarians were shown slides of many seizures and it was absolutely amazing how many drugs are found yet we still have such a problem. The narcotics that are found eventually get incinerated and the other possessions like cars, campers, trucks anything that is being used to transport or store the drugs in become government property, which then goes to public auction where anyone can purchase it.
On occasion Jerry had to spend time in Arizona, which is very different than our borders here in Houlton, Some can get frustrated at times with waiting a few minutes or on a rare occasion hours at the border, but if you are in Arizona, plan on at least a six-hour wait if not overnight. The gates close at midnight so you would either leave or wait until they open the next morning.
It was asked about the dangers to them when they are off duty, while in Arizona they had to stay three hours away from the border so if they had to be to work at 5 am, they had to leave before 2 am and then work their 8 hours and drive three more hours back. Hammond told a story of a fellow worker that had gone to Mexico for something and stopped into a bar and saw Hammond and Dorsta’s picture on the wall “Wanted dead or alive $10,000.” It was a very interesting talk and demonstration.
