Canine officer tracks down hit-and-run driver in Lincolnshire
A Lake County sheriff's canine officer is being lauded by Lincolnshire police for helping nab a hit-and-run driver early Saturday morning.
Lincolnshire police were dispatched at 2:11 a.m. to the intersection of Westwood Lane and Riverwoods Road for a report of a vehicle crashed into a tree, according to Lincolnshire police spokeswoman Kimberly Covelli.
Once on the scene, police could not locate the driver, who had fled on foot. Lake County's canine officer, Dax, and his handler, Deputy John Forlenza, were called in to assist local police. Covelli said Dax hit on a scent and followed it to a home on the 2700 block of Edgewood Lane in Riverwoods, about a mile away on foot.
At the home, police found 23-year-old Esmeralda Galan of Schaumburg. Police said Galan was an acquaintance of the occupants of the home and had run there after the crash.
Galan refused medical treatment and was arrested. She is charged with failure to give notice of a crash, operating an uninsured motor vehicle and improper lane usage, Covelli said.