Sniffer dog confuses food with drugs

Border officials thought they had hit the drugs jack pot when a sniffer dog pounced on a man returning to Britain through customs.

The animal started sniffing at mild mannered Barry Hopcroft as he got off the Eurostar train at St. Pancras, London. 

Officials swooped, expected a big opium haul, and called Barry to one side for questioning.

Only then did they discover that the “contraband” was in fact…dog food!

Barry, 40, says: “It was a real shock – you don’t expect this sort of thing to happen."

“The dog was sniffing away, and circling around me, as if it had won a TV talent show or something. Then it just sat down, to alert its handler to me.

“Then I realised – the animal had been attracted to the dog food that I had put in my bag, which I had packed to feed my Labrador guide dog, Bailey, who had been accompanying me on my day trip to France.

“The officials were fine about it when I explained. We all had a good laugh.”

Barry, a volunteer hospital worker, of East Street, Elephant and Castle, South East London, has been a guide dog owner for six and a half years.

“Bailey is a superb friend to me. He has given me back my mobility, my confidence, and my independence.”

Guide Dogs Chief Executive Bridget Warr says: “Part of our service is providing nutritionally balanced food for guide dogs, to stop them becoming too fat to work.  And this is the first time a packet of dog food has ever been confused with illegal drugs!”