Around 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 6, Union County Sheriff’s Deputies located and tried to stop a person of interest while responding to a possible break-in attempt off Stone Drive near Downtown Blairsville.
A watchful resident had called 911 to report that the suspect, later identified as Charles Anderson House of Mount Airy, had approached a home with a set of bolt cutters, UCSO Sheriff Shawn Dyer said.
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Deputies and Blairsville Police arrived quickly, before any break-in occurred, at which point House attempted to evade law enforcement first by vehicle. Fortunately, the chase didn’t get far.
Facing additional patrol cars heading up the single-lane road, House decided to stop his vehicle, hop out and take off on foot, and he disappeared into the woods of Wellborn Mountain, Sheriff Dyer said.
Two highly trained K-9 teams were deployed to find House, proving instrumental in apprehending him: K-9 Bolo handled by UCSO Capt. Tyler Miller, and K-9 Judge handled by Georgia Department of Natural Resources Law Enforcement Division Game Warden Cpl. Jared Wood.
K-9 Bolo and Capt. Miller took the lead on tracking House, and K-9 Judge and Cpl. Wood picked up the trail to finish the manhunt roughly two hours after it started.
Additional charges could be pending, but Georgia State Patrol brought three misdemeanor charges against House that day: obstruction of law enforcement and driving on the wrong side of an undivided street, as well as hit and run – failure to stop and render aid.
The latter charge was in reference to a traffic incident in another North Georgia county that resulted in a “Be On the Lookout” being issued for his vehicle just days before his Aug. 6 arrest, so law enforcement was already searching for House when he was arrested here.
House was booked into the Union County Jail, where he spent three days before his release on a $6,000 bond. Authorities are not sure what the Mount Airy resident was doing in Blairsville.
His apprehension was made possible by the assistance of the K-9 units, which play a vital role in modern law enforcement.
“Their exceptional tracking abilities, keen sense of smell, and specialized training enable them to locate suspects, detect narcotics, and find missing persons with remarkable speed and accuracy,” the Sheriff’s Office said. “These skills often save critical time during emergencies and enhance officer safety in dangerous situations.”
For these reasons, Sheriff Dyer is proud to have K-9 Bolo as “a part of our team” and is grateful for the assistance of Game Warden Jared Wood and K-9 Judge in this case.
“Their partnership and expertise highlight the invaluable contributions K-9 units make to protecting our community,” the sheriff said.
All individuals are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law.
