Burnsville Cop Honored for Meritorious Service in Missing Person Case

Hair-raising: That's how Burnsville Officer Brad Litke the harrowing phone call he made on Nov. 27, 2012.

Litke had gotten a routine missing persons case earlier that day. Most of those cases are false alarms, he told the Sun Current, but this one felt different. A 62-year-old man who'd recently lost his job had fallen off the map, and his loved ones and pastor sounded distraught.

“You kind of get the hairs on the back of your neck raising: ‘Something’s just not right here,’ ” Litke, 31, told the Sun Current.

Litke was able to find the man in three hours, and not a minute too soon: Police found the man slumped in his vehicle in the driveway of a Lakeville home. His wrists had been cut and there was an empty medicine bottle nearby, but he was still alive. The man was taken to the hospital.

Litke was honored for his work by the Dakota County Chiefs of Police Association, which recently gave him an Exceptional Officer Award. In responding to the incident Litke "demonstrated persistence and commitment" and "may well have saved the man's life," the DCCPA wrote.