Beloved Mo. Police Dog Vader Dies After Being Left in Hot Patrol Car

The Arnold Missouri Police Department said the patrol car's air conditioning system malfunctioned

A police dog in Missouri died last week after being left unattended in a patrol car and exposed to extreme heat.

“On July 31, 2024, we lost a member of our K-9 family in a tragic accident. Arnold Police Department K-9 Vader, 4 years of age, passed away from heat exhaustion,” the Arnold Missouri Police Department on Aug. 1.

Police did not disclose how long Vader was left inside the vehicle.

The police department also did not identify Vader’s K-9 handler, but said that the individual left the dog “in a running, air-conditioned patrol vehicle." This is a “necessary and common practice when the K-9 partner is not actively engaged in police work," police said.

Vader’s handler claimed that once they returned to the vehicle, they discovered that the patrol car’s air conditioning unit had malfunctioned, and immediately transported the animal to a local veterinarian clinic.

After arriving, Vader is said to have shown “signs of improvement,” and was then transferred to a 24-Hour clinic where he would receive further treatment.

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However, things took a turn and the police K-9 “succumbed to his injuries,” the department said.

The Arnold Missouri Police Department claimed they have proper protocols in place to avoid such incidents.

“All Arnold Police Department K-9 vehicles are equipped with a system that notifies the handler by phone, activates the emergency lights and siren, sounds the vehicle horn, activates cooling fans, and rolls down the vehicle windows, if the vehicle temperature increases to a certain level.  In this instance, the heat alarm system failed to activate,” their statement read.

The department “is investigating this tragedy to determine what went wrong," police said.

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“Please keep Vader’s handler, his family, and the members of the APD in your thoughts and prayers as we mourn the loss of our K-9 partner,” the post, which included a photo of Vader, concluded.

Temperatures in the area had been in the 90s, with high humidity all week, The Associated Press reported on Aug. 2.

Vader is the second police dog to die a heat-related death in Missouri this year after a dog named Horus died in a hot car in Savannah, Mo., in June, per the AP.

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