Dog Rescued From Sump Pump Hole Under Home
EVANS, Colo. (CBS4)- Body-worn camera video captured a member of the Evans Police Department as she rescued a dog trapped underneath a mobile home crawl space in the Cave Creek neighborhood.
The dog had been trapped four feet underground in a sump pump hole for up to four days before being rescued.
On May 14, Tanka, a 6-year-old mix, had gotten out through a gate that her owner Mike Linn had mistakenly left open. Despite searching his neighborhood, Linn was unable to find her.
"It was getting worse and worse and worse, day by day," Linn said, describing the worry he and his wife Debi felt as each day passed with no sign of Tanka.
That all changed on May 18 when unbeknownst to Linn, Community Service Technician Deidra Jesmer responded to a call from a resident in Cave Creek who said he'd heard a dog's cries coming from underneath his home.
Jesmer had to crawl underneath the home to reach the hole where Tanka was trapped. On the footage, Jesmer can be heard trying to calm the frightened dog. She fought her own fears of tight spaces and spiders to reach Tanka before going outside to call for back up and back under the home to rescue her.
"You can hear her whining and barking and she was definitely pleading for help," Jesmer said, "You know at this point she could have been down there for several days. It broke my heart, you know… I have dogs, so it hit close to home."
Firefighters helped Jesmer use nets to get Tanka out of the hole. Because the dog was wearing a collar with her name and owner's contact information, Jesmer was able to return her to the Linns within minutes.
"I could see that she had really gone the extra mile," Linn said of Jesmer's efforts, who recently joined the Evans Police Department. "I'm just really glad the city had the wisdom to bring her on board."
Linn was issued a citation for $55 for having a dog at large. He calls the cost minimal, compared to the lengths crews took to get Tanka back to "her people." He offered to pay the cost of cleaning Jesmer's uniform, but she declined, saying it was all just part of the job.
Lauren DiSpirito is CBS4's Northern Newsroom reporter. Follow her on Twitter @CBS4Lauren. Share your story ideas with her here.
