Dog finds revolver

Hamlet, a yellow lab, sniffed out gun that may have been used in shooting

Move over McGruff. There's a new Crime Dog in town.

Hamlet, a 4-year-old yellow lab, sniffed out a gun that possibly was tossed aside after a late Sept. 23 shooting on Ashe Street. Hamlet's owner, Jessica Grossman, called Charleston police, who had just cleared from the shooting scene.

Charleston police were called at 9:21 p.m. about shots heard near 10 Ashe St. Tremaine Pinckney was shot in his lower left leg. The shots possibly came from a vehicle occupied by two men, according to a police report.

Grossman, 43, who walked around the block that night with Scott Fitzgerald, 48, said the gun that Hamlet found appeared to be a revolver. It's not yet known if police linked the revolver to the Ashe Street shooting.

Grossman said the couple and Hamlet often walk together in the evenings but got a late start waiting for the large number of emergency vehicles to leave the neighborhood.

"We were still in aftershock because there was a shooting so close to where we live. After all the hullaballoo died down it was completely quiet," she said.

During the walk, Hamlet started snooping around at the base of some bushes beside Spring Street, near Coming Street. A very curious dog, Hamlet "likes to stick his big snoot any place he can," Grossman explained.

"He sniffed something and I stepped in to see what he was interested in, and it was a gun," she said. "I had to scoot home and get my phone and call the police. I was mighty surprised. It's not every day your dog sniffs out a gun," she said.

She said police took the gun away. "We all kind of assumed it had something to do with the shooting," she said.

Hamlet, "a good-old rescue dog" obtained through the Charleston Animal Society, has been "interviewed" by two local television stations but is handling his newfound celebrity well," Grossman said. She said Hamlet watched television accounts of his accomplishment, and perked up when he heard himself barking.

"He's used to a lot of attention," she added.

Grossman said Hamlet didn't receive anything special for his good deed, but, "He is a rewarded on a frequent basis for being such a good dog."

Reach Edward C. Fennell at efennell@postandcourier.com or 745-5560.