Motorist do a double take at ISP mock drug raid at South Bend body shop

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Dozens of squad cars and just as many K9s made what looked like a real drug raid Wednesday morning outside Hamilton Body Shop and Towing. However this was no drug bust, instead a mock training drill for Indiana State Police handlers and their K9s.

"There were probably 15 different squad cars here and some of them had their lights on, I'm sure they probably thought there was a major drug bust going on here," chuckled Rich Hamilton.

Hamilton is co-owner of Hamilton;s Body Shop. His family opened the impound yard for the Indiana State Police K9 training certification. The business is located on the corner of Sample St. and Lafayette, right across from the jail.

"We try to make a realistic scenarios for our dogs so they don't know if it's a training scenario or a realistic scene. We've got 36 dogs throughout the state that are certifing this month and there is 10 dog handlers and K9 teams from all this area," said Sgt. Dennis Wade, an ISP instructor of the K9 training program.

"What we did inside today is we did narcotic certifications on vehicles, we work under the International Work Dog Association and we are required to certify once a year." said Trooper Mick Dockery.

Trooper Dockery said the dogs are smart enough to pretty much sense today was just training, but passerbys are likely to do a double take and think that something big is unfolding."We've had people stop and ask what was going on, or they might see somebody hidding in a tree, they'll actually tell us, 'hey I think the guy you're are looking for is over there by the tree,' so that's not uncommon," said Tpr. Dockery.

Hamilton said in a joking way while laughing he hopes those driving by his business get the word that today was just training.