A boy was found wandering on a North Carolina road. A police dog helped reunite him with his family

On July 7, emergency dispatchers in North Carolina received a call from a passerby that a child was walking by himself on a Union County road.

When deputies responded, they were unable to locate the child’s home or parents due to the boy being both autistic and non-verbal, according to a release from the Union County Sheriff’s Office.

It was then that bloodhound Remi and his handler, Deputy B. Belk, decided to try a “reverse” K-9 track – something “out of the norm” for a K9 to do, Lieutenant Public Information Officer James Maye told CNN.

“Normally, they track from where a person left to try to find where that person is currently. This time we were doing it reverse,” Maye said.

To obtain the child’s scent for Remi to track, Belk used “a piece of sterile gauze to collect the scent from (the child’s) forearms and the back of his neck,” the sheriff’s office said. In about 15 minutes, Remi was able to lead the child back home, about a half mile away in a nearby neighborhood.

When deputies arrived, the home’s garage door was open and they determined the boy, approximately six years old, left “in a secretive manner that would not have alerted his parents.”

The deputies found there was no criminal offense and left tips to help the family prevent a similar incident from happening again, the sheriff’s office said.

Now that deputies have seen Remi and other dogs can do this, the technique will be implemented in future K-9 training. “I’ve been around for 10 or 12 years. I’ve never heard anything like this being done. It’s not something that these guys train on normally, but it is something they’re going to instill in training from here on out,” Maye said.

Bloodhounds are known for their keen sense of smell, including the ability to distinguish the scent of one human from another.

Remi is just one year old and has been with the department since he was a puppy. He was trained internally by its canine handler, Maye said.

Union County Sheriff Eddie Cathey “is just extremely proud of the hard work, dedication these guys put into training, and we’re glad we’re helping a local family in their time of need.”