How a Rare Sniffer Dog Was Jared Fogle's Undoing

There are only five dogs in America trained to sniff out electronic devices, and one of them played a major role in Jared Fogle's downfall. Bear, a 2-year-old black Labrador, was able to sniff out a thumb drive that human investigators missed during a search of the former Subway spokesman's home last month, reports NBC News, which describes Bear as a "porn-sniffing dog." He can detect tiny memory cards easily and was trained with methods associated with "any other K-9 training, like with the narcotics or explosives or anything," his trainer tells WISH-TV. "You get the dog used to the odor and reward them as they indicate on it."

The lead prosecutor on the Fogle case tells NBC that Bear is a "key part of the team," though he doubted the pooch's abilities at first. "I thought I was being punked, but it does work," he says. The evidence, along with that gathered by an FBI informant, helped secure Fogle's guilty plea on child-porn and underage sex charges. Bear has been a busy dog: NBC reports that he also played a role in the arrest of Olympic gymnastics coach Marvin Sharp. Bear's trainer, a deputy fire chief, sells dogs to law enforcement agencies when their training is completed, and Bear will soon be on his way to Seattle, where the police department contacted the trainer after hearing about the Fogle case. (Fogle's charitable foundation appears to have been a sham.)