The Dog Was A Rat

Today we're offering a multimedia special--paper, pictures, and sound--to memorialize one of the strangest drug busts ever. On Thanksgiving, Ohio cops arrested Nandor Santho after discovering 150 marijuana plants hidden in the basement of the 46-year-old contractor's home. Amazingly, Clinton Township cops were led to Santho's stash when his dog, a pointer named Willie, apparently stepped on a cellular phone button programmed to dial 911. When an emergency operator received the pooch's calls--Willie speed-dialed two consecutive times--she mistook the animal's whimpering for a woman in trouble (click below to listen to Willie's calls). After a phone trace led them to Santho's home, police searched for the damsel in distress--but instead found the marijuana, and arrested house guest Randell Hackworth. As it turned out, Willie had placed the 911 calls while traveling home in Santho's truck following a hunting trip (when cops nabbed Santho, they found both the dog and the cell phone on the truck's passenger seat). Santho has been charged with illegally manufacturing drugs. Willie, on the other hand, should probably replace McGruff in those bothersome crime dog commercials. (4 pages)

CLICK HERE to listen to Willie's 911 calls.

Page 1: Delaware County 911 dispatch log.

Page 2: Polaroids of pot haul.

Page 3: Schematic of Santho's pot pots.

Page 4: Police report on marijuana discovery.