Prince George's drug dog dies

Prince George's County police drug dog Stormy was a bit of a workaholic. So much so that when her handler's pager went off at 2 a.m. -- alerting him to the need for his pet's stellar nose -- she herself jumped up on the bed to give him some extra encouragement to wake up.

"You got a little black lab jumping on you, it makes it a little easier to get out of bed," said Maj. Pete Eliadis, commander of the Prince George's County Police Department's Special Investigations Division and Stormy's longtime owner.

Stormy. (Prince George's County Police.)

It came as somewhat of a surprise, then, when on Feb. 23, Stormy, nearly 15 years old, seemed to have trouble standing up. Old age, it seemed, had caught up to the dog responsible for more than $26 million in drug seizures and more than $2 million in asset seizures. In obvious pain, she was euthanized that day, Eliadis said.

Stormy began her career in Prince George’s in 1999, Eliadis said, as the first dog to work for the police department’s narcotics interdiction unit, a group specifically assigned to snuff out drugs before they crossed the county’s borders. In 2003, she transferred with Eliadis to the Special Operations Division, serving there as a drug dog until she retired in 2007.

On one occasion, Eliadis said, Stormy helped in the seizure of almost 900 pounds of marijuana.

“She definitely earned her keep,” Eliadis said.

And it remained that way until she died, Eliadis said. As Stormy lay on a table at the veterinarian's office, preparing to be euthanized, Eliadis said he told his dog one final time, “Find dope.” Though she could hardly move, her eyes twinkled and her ears perked up, he said.

“Her drive to play and work was just, I’ve never seen it,” Eliadis said.

-- Matt Zapotosky