The nose knows — Wanted man unable to outwit Belmont PD K-9

BELMONT — A police dog's keen sense of smell is responsible for the apprehension of a local man who police had been seeking since this summer.

Stephen Anderson, 25, of Belmont, was arrested Thursday when the Belmont Police Department’s K-9, Vito, hit upon the suspect’s scent, which led to his discovery in a cubby-hole under a stairway in the Anderson family home on Woodland Drive, police said Friday.

According to Belmont Police Capt. Rich Mann, police had been searching for Anderson since this summer when he ran away from officers at a traffic stop on Union Road. At that time, police knew Anderson was wanted in connection with two bench warrants — one from Merrimack County, one bench warrant from a previous resisting-arrest charge in Belmont – as well as an order for arrest by state Probation and Parole.

The officer who made the summer traffic stop recognized the passenger in the vehicle as Anderson, who fled the vehicle while it was still moving and ran into a nearby swampy area, where the officer was unable to locate him, Mann said.

Since then, police had made numerous attempts to locate Anderson at his family residence as well as at friends’ homes. “Residents at the Anderson home oftentimes would greet police at the door and allow officers to look around for the wanted man with no success,” Mann said.

Shortly after 9 p.m. on Thursday officers, including K-9 Vito, arrived at the Anderson residence without notice. Three times officers announced that they were there to arrest Anderson and that he needed to show himself immediately. Several guests in the home left, all of them denying Anderson was in the residence.

At that point, the K-9 was let loose inside the house with instructions to “seek” anyone hiding. After a few minutes the dog gave a signal that he sensed someone was hiding behind a partition. The hiding place was beneath a stairway, the access to which was camouflaged by a faux fireplace, mounted on hinges, which allowed the false front to be open and shut from the inside, Mann explained.

Anderson was arrested, and after arraignment in Fourth Circuit Court-District Division-Laconia, he was turned over to state Probation and Parole authorities.