ST PAUL, Minn — Any police officer retiring after a successful career deserves a party. After eight long years of being on the clock, on all fours, K9 Havoc had his day today.
"His retirement is today-- his retirement party but his official last day is Friday," Havoc's handler officer Jay Curiel said. He added that he couldn't be prouder of his long-time partner.
"He's found over 50 suspects who have run from police, dozens of guns, evidence recovery, found guns suspects have thrown--he's found lost kids left from home couple of blocks away from home at the playground," Curiel listed.
When you think of police K9's that may be one of the first things you might think: chasing down criminals, sniffing out drugs and contraband. No one can deny that Havoc was great at all those things, but the work he has done that has touched the most lives might just be the work he has done at Children's Minnesota St. Paul Hospital.
"We would come the last Wednesday of the month, once a month we'd come," Curiel said. "We probably visited well over 800 kids [in the] almost eight years that we've done this now."
Havoc continually brought comfort to hundreds. Curiel recounted the time when he and Havoc walked past a room where they heard a young girl crying, scared to have an IV put into her arm. Curiel said once he and Havoc entered the room, the girl immediately calmed down as she got to pet Havoc. While she was distracted, doctors were able to insert the IV.
Then, there was the time Havoc brought joy to young Aubrey Kennedy, who stayed at Children's Minnesota St. Paul Hospital for two weeks due to a severe eye infection and surgery.
"He took a couple of pictures with me, he let me pet him," Aubrey said. "He made me kind of forget about my eye."
At a time Aubrey needed cuddles the most, Havoc was there. She said he made her two weeks at the hospital a little brighter.
"I think it's great," Aubrey's mother Alicia Kennedy said. "I think animals bring happiness especially to kids so I think it's great that they have that opportunity to have dogs like Havoc come and make kids smile. It makes the parents smile to see their kids smile."
Aubrey is well now and both she and Alicia came to Children's Minnesota to be a part of Havoc's retirement party.
"You get to a hospital and that's at a point where we as parents, we can't make [the kids] feel better," Curiel said. "It's up to the staff, the doctors, nurses but we can try to make them smile. That's a helpless feeling, but what I learned early on with Havoc is that we can do what we can to make these kids smile, brighten their day. Even for the brief moment that we're there."
Havoc may be retiring from the department soon, but not from the hearts of the hundreds he's touched.
"Yeah he's just a really good dog," Aubrey said. "He made me want to have a dog of my own when I grow up and be a police officer and have a partner to stop crime and stuff."
Havoc will continue to live with Curiel's family as a pet. As for his work, Curiel said he is already working on training a new K9, who will graduate the K9 program later this year.