GRAND TRAVERSE COUNTY, Mich. — After a man fell through the ice on a lake this week, a state officer got help from an unexpected hero: the man's dog, Ruby.
The incident happened Thursday morning on Arbutus Lake in Grand Traverse County. A 65-year-old Traverse City man had been on the lake when he fell through the ice.
After bystanders called for help, Michigan State Police Motor Carrier Officer (MCO) Kammeron Bennetts responded and began working to rescue the man. Bennetts attempted to use a rescue disc, which is a frisbee-like disc used to rescue people in deep waters or iced-over lakes, but was unable to get close enough to the man due to the ice conditions.
Bennetts noticed the man had his dog, Ruby, next to him.
"Not knowing if she would listen to me, or not knowing if she would hear my verbal commands, I asked him and she perked up," said Bennets. "So, I knew at least she could hear me."
Bennetts called out to Ruby, who came to him. She initially wanted to play and did not take the disc, but Bennetts attached the rescue disc to Ruby's collar and told the man to call his dog.
"She knew dad was in trouble and she knew she had to do something to help," said Bennetts.
With the help of a Grand Traverse Metro Fire Department, Bennetts was able to pull the man out of the water and onto the ice.
He was then taken to a hospital for treatment and later released. Police say he was in the water for about 16 minutes. Bennetts said it appears he was originally on the lake checking the conditions of the ice for fishing purposes.
"[Ruby] was luckily able to ride in the ambulance with him, kind of to keep her warm too because she was wet," said Bennetts. "And then, she was able to stay in the hospital room with them for a little bit too, which was fantastic."
Bennetts said he has visited the man in the hospital, and he is doing well. He said Ruby has "a thank you hunting trip to get some birds out west" in her future.
The dramatic rescue was captured on the officer's body camera, where he can be heard calling instructions to the man and working with Ruby to get help to her owner.
This comes as the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has been urging Michiganders to stay off the ice. While the plummeting temperatures have caused some inland lakes to ice over, the ice is not thick enough to be safe.
"We're trained to do so many different things in so many different scenarios, but there's some things that you really just can't train, or there's really just some scenarios that you can't replicate to do," said Bennetts. "So, spongy ice situation is one of those things where there's really not much we can do."
Bennetts said the combined high winds and snow prevented the ice from forming hard on Arbutus Lake, an inland lake in the Traverse City area.
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