Hi MV,
   Greetings from the frigid midwest.   With the wind chill over the past few days, temperatures here have been -30 degrees at night, Cold enough where the schools closed today and tomorrow as a result.   Thankfully, it has been fairly quiet at work so Elvis doesn't have to be out for too long.

I hope it is much warmer down in Amelia, I apologize for not sending this sooner, but I wanted to let you know of Elvis' first narcotics find.

About a week after I returned back home, I was still on vacation and was paged out to assist with a traffic stop. According to a confidential informant, a large amount of cocaine was supposed to be inside the vehicle stopped and possibly concealed in a hidden compartment.

Arriving on scene, Elvis was deployed and alerted to the odor of a narcotic near the trunk and underneath it, after the driver was arrested for unlicensed driving, the vehicle was towed back to our station. 

Our Chief was present and Elvis did another vehicle sniff at his request.   Again, Elvis alerted in the same areas mentioned above.   The trunk was opened, Elvis was put into it, and he alerted to the bottom of the trunk.   Some of our officers attempted to find the narcotics and were unsuccessful, so an officer from the Chicago Police Department who is familiar with hidden compartments responded. At first, this officer was also unable to discover any narcotics. However, when he was advised how much interest Elvis had under the trunk, the vehicle was jacked up and the officer noticed after market welds and a hidden compartment near the rear of the vehicle. After a lengthy search, the officer was able to locate an access point to the hidden compartment in the passenger side wheel well once the tire was taken off.

The cover to the hidden compartment was removed and four kilos of cocaine were found within the compartment, the cocaine was wrapped in plastic and motor oil has also been used in an attempt to mask the odor, both my Chief and I are very proud of Elvis's first find and I'm sure you are too now that you are aware of it.

I still train with Elvis frequently and also participate in a K9 training group every other week that involves approximately 20 other area departments, at my last training I was very pleased with Elvis's progress in aggression control. 

Most of the other handlers had problems getting their K9's off of a bite when commanded.   Ever since I returned home, whenever Elvis is commanded to bite, he will come off of it on the first time I give him the command. The other handlers were all impressed. Hard to believe I had such a hard time with this when down in Virginia even up to the very end.

Thank you again for everything!
Sincerely,
Jamie Ashe & K9 "Elvis"
Palatine Police Department