Amazing Drone Video Tracks Runaway Teens Near Haughton
When officials alerted the Bossier Sheriff's Office to three teen males who had run away from Camp Minden's Youth Challenge Program near Haughton, deputies sprang into action. The incident occurred on Wednesday, March 8th, around 10:15pm.
Haughton Police reported seeing the teens run into the woods near the Showdown Saloon on Highway 80. Sheriff's deputies knew that tracking the boys in the woods would be difficult at night, so they called on their secret weapons: a specially trained deputy and his unarmed aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone.
The deputy quickly deployed the drone which was equipped with thermal imaging. Within one minute of deployment the teens were located. Two decided to hide in a ditch where deputies quickly rounded them up. The third opted to make a run for it and in the video footage, you can follow him as he runs through the woods and across all four lanes of I-20 in pitch dark. He makes it across the first two lanes easily, but barely beats an 18-wheeler across the other two lanes. The teen is still at large.
Bossier Sheriff Julian Whittington says that he is encouraged by the opportunities that drones afford law enforcement when searching for runaways, lost people, criminals, and even for what they can provide in the way of overhead views of floods or other disasters.