A pit bull mix, not usually known for aggressive behavior, pulled the front fender off a Chattanooga police cruiser, but has been returned to its owner after a strange spinoff of the adage, “taking a bite out of crime.”Winston, a boxer-bull mix, and tore the fender off the car while a few of his canine friends and the driver of the vehicle could so little but watch.
After almost two weeks in confinement, he was reunited with the Emerling family at McKamey Animal Shelter.
“We think Chattanooga Police Department showed amazing restraint in not shooting the dog,” owner Michael Emerling said. “I know that a lot of places close to here we’ve seen cases where dogs have done a lot less and been shot. So we really are grateful to them for not doing that.”
Emerling paid court-required fees of more than $200 and was required to enroll to dog obedience and canine good citizen classes.
The dog attacked the vehicle after escaping from a fenced-in area at welding shop on March 14.
Article Last Updated: March 27, 2010.
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A sports, travel and business journalist for more than 45 years, James has written the new car review column The Weekly Driver since 2004.
In addition to founding this site in 2004, James writes a Sunday automotive column for The San Jose Mercury and East Bay Times in Walnut Creek, Calif., and monthly auto review and wellness columns for Gulfshore Business, a magazine in Southwest Florida.
An author and contributor to many newspapers, magazines and online publications, co-hosted The Weekly Driver Podcast from 2017 to 2024.
