PELHAM – Beloved retired Pelham police K-9, Bizzy, died in her sleep on July 5, according to Pelham Police Chief Larry Palmer.

Palmer said 12-year-old Bizzy didn’t have any health issues that he knew of at the time of her death. Bizzy, a full-blood Labrador, retired from the force in November 2016, after serving nearly 10 years as drug detection K-9.

When she retired, the city transferred ownership of Bizzy to her handler, Sgt. Steve Johnson. The police department now has two drug detection K-9s, with one possessing tracking capabilities.

“She filled the position with great honor,” Palmer said. “She’ll be missed.”

Although she was retired, Palmer said Bizzy still made occasional returns to the job to assist with community outreach and visiting schools.

“She loved nothing more than to play with the kids,” Palmer said. “The kids loved her and she enjoyed the attention.”

During her career with the PPD, Bizzy conducted 2,160 searches that resulted in 435 arrests and $1 million in asset forfeitures. Palmer said Bizzy never had a false drug detection.

“She was such a great asset to the city,” Palmer said. “She was not only great at performing the job she was purchased for, which was drug detection, but she was also great with kids.”

Palmer said Bizzy was the department’s first true attempt at starting a K-9 program.

“We tried a couple of times before but were unsuccessful,” Palmer said. “When we decided to purchase Bizzy, we knew we had to be trained and properly prepared if we wanted it to work.”

But Bizzy didn’t only assist the Pelham Police Department. In 2009, Palmer said the PPD was contacted by an interdiction team in Georgia concerning 1,200 pounds of marijuana seized during a traffic stop. The driver of the vehicle gave directions to a mini storage business where he picked up the load, but could only tell officers which row of mini storages, not the exact unit, where the drugs were located.

Bizzy searched the row of storage units and alerted on a unit.  A search warrant was obtained based on Bizzy’s alert, and inside the unit was marijuana and $100,000 in cash. This led to a second search warrant at the suspect’s house where more drugs and more than $100,000 in cash and other assets were recovered.

In 2011, the Drug Enforcement Administration utilized Bizzy on a search that resulted in the seizure of more than $300,000 in cash.

In April 2015, Bizzy performed her largest drug seizure to date. She was used in two different searches, one vehicle and one mini storage, that resulted in the seizure of 27 kilograms of cocaine.