Lt. Col. Johnny Dixon runs through the woods and into a sugar cane field. About 10-feet ahead of him, his partner, Lacey.
They were looking for Paul Stanley Collins, suspected of killing his wife and running from police- leading them on a 24-hour chase in New Iberia.
After about 12-hours of searching for Collins in the sugar cane fields, New Iberia Sheriff Louis Ackal contacted Angola prison and requested their K9 tracking team to assist in the search.
That's when Dixon arrived with his hound and partner, Lacey.
However, Lacey wasn't supposed to be the top dog for a job like this. About a week before Collins fled in New Iberia, Dixon and a few other K9 officers were chasing an escaped inmate from the prison.
One of the prison's dogs, Callie fell off a bluff.
"She was hanging there and almost pulled her handler with her," Dixon said. "We went to pull her up but she slipped out of her harness and fell 40-feet."
Amazingly, Callie survived the fall and led officers to the escaped inmates.
"When we took (Callie) to the vet," Dixon said, "she had (multiple breaks) in her pelvis."
The next week, Angola received the call from Sheriff Ackal to help. They left Callie to recuperate and brought Lacey instead.
It was Lacey's first arrest. Dixon, on the other hand, has been running with the K9 unit for more than 20-years, but he says it never gets old and it's rewarding to put criminals back where they belong... in jail.
"Knowing that you've saved countless people's lives," Dixon says, "it's just a real good feeling."



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