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HERRIMAN — Of all the things Copper has found during his 6-year career as a West Valley City police dog, his biggest find yet may be Kollin Bailey.
“It’s kind of a nice change of pace from finding bad guys to actually helping out a family,” said Sgt. Shane Matheson, Copper’s K-9 handler with the West Valley City Police Department.
The boy and his rescue dog were reunited Saturday evening at West Valley City Hall, less than 24 hours after Kollin was pulled from a manhole in Herriman.
Like any other 6-year-old boy, Kollin is full of adventure and wonder. He was minding his own business Friday afternoon near his Herriman home, flying a kite in an empty retention pond near 12600 South and 4500 West, when he fell down a manhole.
He never saw the cover was off of it.
"I blacked out for a little bit, and when I opened my eyes I was down there,” Kollin said Saturday afternoon.
When he didn't come home, his mother, of course, got worried.
“I just kept falling over last night. I just couldn't stand because I was so scared,” Shara Bailey said
Kollin was 10 feet down the manhole shaft and was yelling for help. However, the area where the manhole is located is a busy one, with lots of traffic.
It's hard to hear anybody, especially someone underground. Fortunately, bloodhounds don't rely on sound; they go for smell.
"Copper, he kept wanting to go back to the park where the retention pond was. So, I followed him down the hill and he went right down to where the manhole was,” Matheson said.
That's where Copper found Kollin, who by then had been missing for nearly four hours.
"They ... put us in the truck, and as they're driving their radio is on, and it said 'We're pulling him out of the manhole now. He's non-responsive,'" Shara Bailey recalled. "And I'm just (asking), ‘What's going on?’ And they turned the volume down.
But Kollin was OK and his family took him to a local hospital.
He has a broken arm, scratches and bruises, but by Saturday afternoon he was acting like any other 6-year-old.
"My son's life goes out to them, because he wouldn't be here with us today if we didn't have those K-9 units and great police officers,” said Shawn Bailey, Kollin’s father.
Herriman City spokeswoman Tami Moody said it appears somebody tampered with the manhole cover and took it off. She said city workers have not done any maintenance in the area.
Still, Shara Bailey has questions.
"That's just it. These need to be bolted down, something, or (have) a lock on it," she said. "There are three manholes in that area where kids play all the time."
In this case, though, everything turned out OK — all thanks to a police dog.
"I was telling everyone at the hospital last night, 'That dog is going to get the biggest bone he's ever gotten for Christmas,'” Shawn Bailey said with a laugh.
Contributing: Ray Boone and Nkoyo Iyamba
