Apple AirTag Helps Dog Reunite with Owner After Pet Is Swept Away by California Floodwaters
San Bernardino County Fire
Rescuers reunited an Australian shepherd with his owner after the dog fell into a flooded storm drain in California — and it's all thanks to an Apple AirTag.
The 1-year-old pup named Seamus became separated from Emilie Brill on Monday during their afternoon walk, the dog owner told ABC 7 Los Angeles.
"He got away from me, and he just went down into this drainage," she said. "The water was going so fast I think all it took was one paw in that water, and he was gone."
The San Bernardino Fire Department responded to a call about the missing pup and went to work locating the dog. While rescuers were canvassing the area, an employee at a nearby RV facility told them he heard a dog barking nearby and saw Seamus floating down the swollen drainage channel, the California fire department shared on Facebook.
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"He followed Seamus and observed the dog had found a way out of the water into an access tube nearby," the agency wrote on social media. "Firefighters were flagged down & found Seamus in the tube staring back at them. He traveled nearly a mile from when he entered the storm drain. He miraculously made it out of the fast-moving water & was stuck at the bottom of the tube."
San Bernardino County Fire
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According to ABC News, the Apple AirTag attached to Seamus' collar helped the firefighters track down the right sewer drain to reach the dog. Luckily, the pup was uninjured from his adventure; rescuers even noted that the canine was in "good spirits" when they found him.
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Upon bringing Seamus to the fire station, firefighters used the conventional ID and Apple AirTag on the dog's collar to confirm the pup's owner and arrange a speedy reunion between Seamus and his dog mom, who lives in Loma Linda.
"I was just blown away by that level of response from our emergency services," Brill said.
For the fire department's part, the rescue was all in a day's work — even if they didn't get a new pet.
"While we would have loved to make Seamus a fire station pup, glad we could reunite the dog back with his owners," the San Bernardino Fire Department wrote on Facebook.
