VIDEO: A Beloved Dog Went Missing for 3 Weeks in RI. A Military Vet With a Drone Helped Find Him.

VIDEO: A Beloved Dog Went Missing for 3 Weeks in RI. A Military Vet With a Drone Helped Find Him.

Bruschi final search from Hawkeye on Vimeo.

 

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For 23 days, “Bruschi” was missing in Coventry. 

Friends and family all tried to help find the beloved family dog, and thanks to enlisting the help of a drone expert — there was a happy ending. 

Military veteran Sam Aromin with Hawkeye Aerial Systems was called in to assist with his thermo drone equipment, and multiple sightings later, Bruschi was pulled from thick swamp land near Casey Lane. 

Aromin documented the rescue, and spoke with GoLocal about his growing business in southern New England helping find missing animals. 

“Working directly with the drone, it’s been about 85 [rescues] so far,” said Aromin. “The sky’s really the limit with drones.” 

 

How It Started

“It was December 2022 when I got my thermo drones — and I had no intention of searching for dogs,” laughed Aromin, who is based in Fall River. “I’d gotten into the hobby of using drones because I’m a veteran with PTSD. I fell in love with it, I got my license two months later, and I thought, why don’t I just do commercial?”

During his military service, Aromin had been attached to a naval air squadron called VAW-123 Screwtops which has a fleet of 4 E-2C Hawkeyes, which he paid homage to his squadron in naming the business after them.

According to Aromin, the E-2C Hawkeye is a tactical airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft and provides all-weather airborne and command and control capabilities. It also serves its purpose as a sea and land surveillance and can conduct search and rescue missions.

For Aromin, he didn’t think he would be doing search and rescue with the drone, but it found its way to him. 

“I thought [when I got the thermal drone] I was going to do photography and real estate, house inspections, that type of thing,” said Aromin.

Then he saw someone in need of help. 

“I reached out to a woman in Fitchburg — her dog had gone missing a few hours prior, like four o’clock in the afternoon; I touched base with her around 7 and let her know I had the drone, and I could try it out,” said Aromin. “We found her dog in less than an hour, and that’s how it started.”

Aromin says his military background has helped with the 

"I’d learned a lot on basic search and rescue techniques — I’m very analytical," said Aromin. "I think, 'What’s the most efficient way for me to do this,' using process and procedures."

 

Finding Bruschi

On social media, Aromin documented how he came to Coventry — and completed a successful mission. 

Bruschi went missing in Coventry, RI for nearly 23 days and braved the elements of high winds and torrential downpour.  We sighted Bruschi the first few days of him missing and as you all have followed this page the video of Bruschi trotting around behind a homeowner's backyard and into the woods.  That day we backed off and observed from afar until night fall his position of him deciding his safe zone.  

Bruschi stayed in position that night and owners had MDM [Missing Dogs Massachusetts] take over to trap him in the upcoming days. There was no movement or sighting of Bruschi from that day, and a few days later, the owners received a call sighting that he was down the road.  By the time the owners arrived, he was nowhere to be found but witnessed a horse that was at the house running down the lane at the sighting and thought that it spooked Bruschi.   

A week later, I was on a case coming back from western MA from a search and went to look or Bruschi around 3 AM in the morning to spot check the area as there was indication from that morning that a homeowner heard a dog barking/howling in her backyard in the swamp.  Within 10 minutes Bruschi was found in the dense swamp with a barely visible heat signature due to the dense swamp brush hiding his body.

Last Thursday while I was on a search at Nantucket, Bruschi's owners called and said they had a sighting about 3/4 mile down the road.  We studied the area and they went on foot to find any paw prints of Bruschi and found nothing.

Sunday [July 21] I arrived on the scene around 9:15 pm, something was telling me to look back at his sighting last week.  While talking to a neighbor that was out searching for Bruschi about my suspicion of him being back in the swamp, we found Bruschi within less than a minute. 

It was so dense that his heat signature was barely visible from the air and could have been mistaken for a small squirrel.

The swamp was thick and it took 45 minutes to get to Bruschi.  Everyone was waiting in anticipation as we watched from the screen while in communication with ground ops team.  In the video if you notice the flashlights shining on him is the moment that we were nervous, excited and relieved at the same time as this is the first time Bruschi was finally ready to come home.  

He did not run away and instead was listening to his owner while sniffing the food in the air.