Hermosa Beach Police K-9 Keef earned his keep shortly after completing his training with his handler Officer George Brunn three years ago.
Brunn and Keef were called to search a rental car that law enforcement agents suspected was transporting drugs. Keef began scratching at the car’s trunk, where the agents found a duffle bag.
The agents asked the driver what was in the bag. The driver responded, “What bag?”
Since there was no way to prove the driver had knowledge of the bag in his trunk, the driver was released, but only after signing a waiver relinquishing his rights to the bag’s contents.
The bag contained $233,000 in marijuana-scented money.
Brunn trained Keef to smell out marijuana by playing tug-of-war with his dog, using a terry cloth towel scented with marijuana. When Brunn hid the towel in a dresser drawer at his home, Keef would seek it out for another game of tug-of-war.
Brunn’s K-9 training mentor, he said, is the legendary Ken Greenleaf, who recently retired from the Redondo Police Department. Last September Greenleaf and his K-9 Caden won the gold medal at the World Police and Fire Games in New York City.
Brunn also trained Keef to search for heroin, methamphetamine, opiates and cocaine, Brunn told guests at the 34th Annual Peter Zippi Fund Fundraiser last Sunday at theVCACoastalAnimalHospitalinHermosa Beach.
“It’s a game for him,” Brunn explained. After Keef began scratching at the back door of a Hermosa Animal Control Truck, where marijuana had been hidden, Brunn rewarded him with a game of catch.
Brunn said Keef is always ready to play, so if the two are off duty and walking through a parking lot and Keef smells drugs he’ll search out the source.
Keef’s name, which is a term for marijuana pollen, was given him by Brunn’s fellow officers. His name was Keith when Brunn acquired him from a  companion dog program, where he had flunked out because he was too energetic.
Keith didn’t sound right for a dog, but he already responded to that name, so if it was going to be changed, the new name had to be similar, Brunn said.
Redondo Beachresident and Los Angeles County Sheriff John Cater also brought his K-9, Beans, to the fundraiser.
Beans is trained to locate explosives, so rather than scratch at the explosive’s location, he sits and points at it. cater said his kids gave Beans his name because he jumps up and down like a jumping bean at meals.
Keef and Beans are patients at VCA Coastal Animal Hospital.
The Peter Zippi Fund for Animals was founded by the animal hospital’s owner Dr. Alice Villalobos in 1977 in memory of a former hospital employee. Over the years, the organization has assisted in finding homes for over 14,000 pets, mostly cats. For more about the organization, visit PeterZippiFund.com.
