HOT PURSUIT

Owatonna’s K-9 Vegas needs your help.

The Owatonna Police Department is partaking in a grant through Aftermath, an Illinois company that specializes in cleanup of crime scenes.

This is a free grant where popular vote wins. Voting for your favorite K-9 opened last Thursday and continues through Monday, June 5.

Every person is able to cast three votes daily, one at each of the following locations: Aftermath website, Facebook page and Instagram accounts. Go to www.aftermath.com/k9-grant, Facebook @AftermathCares or Instagram: @AftermathK9Grant. Go to the daily post, like it, then comment with the agency’s name, city and state. This can be done once every 24 hours on EACH platform.

Aftermath says $15,000 will be awarded in K-9 grants across the country. The top eight police agencies by tier with the most eligible votes will be given the grants. The beauty of this is that the grants are determined by you. Simply cast your vote up to three times a day. Gather your friends, family and community to make this count for Owatonna.

The winners will be announced on June 7.

During this time of tight budgets, it would be great to get some extra funding to support our law enforcement partners, especially the K-9 unit. The local department could earn up to $2,500.

Vegas has been on the Owatonna police force since 2019 with his partner, Officer Casey Martin. Vegas is a dual-purpose dog that can be used for narcotics detection and criminal apprehension.

K-9s are an important crime fighting tool for communities to have. We are fortunate to have two K-9 units in Steele County. Besides Vegas, Deputy Caleb Buck of the Steele County Sheriff’s Office patrols with Willow throughout the county.

Make it count Owatonna and Steele County by going in hot pursuit of voting for Vegas this week.