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Handler – Officer John Mahon
Decorated Retired Southington Police Dog Arno Dies
Arno, a decorated police dog who served at the Southington Police Department for several years, has died, law enforcement officials said. Arno was 12. Arno was on the job from January 2010 until December 2019, when both he and his handler, Officer John Mahon, retired. Arno worked patrol with Mahon over the nine years and also represented the Southington Police Department in parades, at schools, and at special events such as the Touch a Truck. Mahon and Arno were awarded the Connecticut Police Work Dog Association Tracking Award for 2015 after a theft case at a local store. On Feb. 4 of that year, Mahon and Arno responded to the Southington Target store after police recieved a report that two individuals had broken into the store and were observed on surveillance equipment leaving through an “opening” they had created. Mahon and Arno began a track that lasted about two hours in 5-degree weather through two streams. The two suspects were captured, as was the getaway car driver. Authorities then discovered that 13 Target stores had been burglarized in the same manner, which aided the FBI in closing out cases from as far away as Florida and Texas and one of the suspects had extraditable warrants out of Texas and New Jersey. In all, Arno had “successful tracks” with Mahon that led to locating missing persons, burglars, car thieves and “other criminals,” police said. “The Southington Police Department would like to thank Arno for his service and offer our sincerest condolences to Officer Mahon,” town officials said in a statement released Monday.
