Police help canine commuter find her way home

British Transport Police have helped a canine commuter find her way home, after an unexpected journey.

Princess, a four-year-old Staffordshire Terrier, escaped from her back garden in Rochdale on Friday, 2nd January, and headed to Castleton station where she hopped on board a train to Manchester.

Princess disembarked at Manchester Victoria, where station staff handed her over to PC Christopher O’Connor and PCSO Lee Howard.

PC O'Connor tweeted asking for help in finding her owners, and Manchester Dog's Trust scanned her microchip to try and find her home address.

After a bit of detective work and following of leads the Hughes family came forward to claim Princess.

Amanda Hughes said: “I knew she’d got a train into town within 40 minutes of her going missing. I’d posted it on my Facebook account and someone replied saying they’d spotted her on Twitter and Facebook.

"They said they were sure it was Princess but I thought it’s just not something she would do. We don’t live far from the station, but we always walk her in the other direction so how she found her way there and then jumped on a train is a mystery but she is a bit of a character.”

PC Christopher O’Connor who, along with PCSO Howard, escorted Princess to safety after her adventure said: “She’s a lovely dog and she was a real pleasure to deal with, she was so affectionate and friendly. This was definitely one of our nicer jobs, we got a great deal of satisfaction from seeing her get home safely.

“It’s great to think that, thanks to a lot of teamwork with colleagues at Northern Rail and Greater Manchester Police, there was a happy ending.”

Princess is now safely home and has a new microchip, to help find her if she takes a day trip again.