WELLINGTON, Colo. — Weld County deputies and a K-9 saved a young man who nearly succumbed to freezing conditions in a snow squall last week, the sheriff's office announced on Wednesday.
Two deputies responded about 9:40 p.m. on Feb. 12 to an area south of Wellington, where a resident reported that a man knocked on their door to ask for water but ran away when they called 911, according to a news release from the sheriff's office.
The deputies spotted shoe impressions near the caller's house, and later found similar impressions along Weld County Road 15, near Cobb Lake, about nine miles south of Wellington.
Three more deputies and a K-9, Ringo, responded to help, and Ringo began tracking the missing man. After walking about a mile and a half, Ringo and the deputies found the man, a 22-year-old from Columbus, Neb., laying on the ground, too cold to walk and with his shoes frozen to his feet, the news release said. The deputies carried the man to a patrol vehicle and he was later taken to Poudre Valley Hospital, where he has since recovered.
The man had nearly fallen asleep when deputies found him, and he likely would have succumbed to the cold conditions if he wasn't found, according to the sheriff's office.
Sean Wagner, Elijah Howard, Thomas Lamb, Andrew Annan and Ben Rexroad were the deputies who found the man. He told authorities he was walking from Fort Collins to Cheyenne along U.S. 287 when he got lost in the snowy conditions.
