ADOT, AZDPS team up and reunite lost dog with family on New Year's Eve

Teamwork between ADOT and the Arizona Department of Public Safety reunited a lost dog with its family on New Year’s Eve.

On Wednesday, Dec. 31, Traffic Operations Center supervisor Scott Stenbakken spotted a large white dog on a freeway camera. After making DPS aware so a trooper could respond to the scene at Interstate 10 and 83rd Avenue, Stenbakken checked a Facebook page for lost pets. He saw a photo of a dog named Nala, who looked awfully similar to the dog he saw on camera, and sent a message to Nala’s owners.

Meanwhile a DPS trooper at the scene in Phoenix’s West Valley was able to get a leash on Nala with help from a bystander and kept her from going down the ramp and onto mainline I-10.

By then, Stenbakken learned that this dog was, in fact, Nala. He notified the trooper, who called her owner and a relative was able to retrieve Nala.

This isn’t the first time dispatchers at our Traffic Operations Center have helped return a lost dog to its family.

“I’ve been monitoring the page since last year, when another dispatcher spotted a dog on a freeway that had been missing for over a month,” Stenbakken said. “That’s how we found that dog’s owner.”

While this story has a happy ending, we want to ensure safety for all – pets and people. If you see pets in travel lanes or near freeways, call 911 and don’t attempt to capture the pet on your own. It’s not safe to be in traffic and law enforcement and ADOT crews will respond quickly.