12 days missing without a trace. Nick Havens along with dozens of community members have been tirelessly searching for his dog Dexter for close to two weeks, until a phone call Tuesday changed everything.

“I was at work and I got a phone call from a Pennsylvania area code," said Havens.

It was a call from the SPCA in Wilkes Barre, about 70 miles away from Havens' home in Endwell and close to an hour drive.

“They asked me, ‘are you missing a dog?’ and I said, ‘yes I am,” and they said ‘we have your dog.’"

— Nick Havens, Dexter's owner

Havens didn't believe what he was hearing on the phone, doubtful that his Dexter would be all the way in Pennsylvania.

“We didn’t believe it until we had him in our arms, but yea it was pretty overwhelming,” said Havens.

After the phone call, Havens left work and drove down to the SPCA of Luzerne County where he reunited with Dexter. The SPCA of Luzerne County found Havens information after scanning Dexter's microchip.

But how exactly did the missing dog end up that far away from home?

“I can only speculate. I’m not sure if we really want to know his story. It’s quite a drive so I’d like to think that somebody had a change of heart and just tied him up and assumed somebody would call animal control, which I'm glad somebody did," said Havens.

On Friday, the SPCA of Luzerne County was called about a dog tied up at a gas station in the city of Pittston. Animal control came and brought the dog to the shelter, where it spent the next four days. The shelter tried to scan its microchip on Friday, but with no success, until Tuesday when they used a different scanner. The dog was Dexter, and after learning where the missing dog lived, workers at the shelter were surprised at how far away he was from home.

“He was pretty scared when we picked him up. He was quivering. His tail was down between his legs. You know, once he saw us, his tail finally started wagging. They said that was the first time they’ve seen him wag since they picked him up," said Havens.

“If not for his microchip, I don’t think we’d ever see him again," said Havens.

Havens is just happy to have Dexter back home and is grateful for all the support the community gave him.

“I can’t thank the community enough, friends and family. I mean my family has spent countless hours hanging flyers and our friends too and it’s just, we couldn’t have done it without everybody else. We wouldn’t be able to mentally deal with it without everybody, so we are super grateful for all that," said Havens.

Havens told Fox 40 he plans on hosting a 'Thank You/Welcome Home' party this Sunday as his gratitude for all the help and support he received from the community. He plans on having the party at Highland Park.