ST. PAUL - When a 3-year-old boy, barefoot and in his pajamas, was lost on a St. Paul street earlier this week, concerned residents, a police officer on patrol and a police dog's tracking skills got him home safely.

It started about 9:20 a.m. Monday, when resident Amber Duncan said she was worried to see a young child running near her busy street in the Como neighborhood. About that time, St. Paul police officer Pat Murphy, who was patrolling in the area, pulled over to see what was happening.

Murphy tried to talk to the boy, but he ran away and the officer caught up with him after a block.

“He was looking for his mom,” Murphy said Wednesday. “I asked if he could show me where he lived.”

The officer and boy started walking and looking around, but the child’s bare feet were hurting. Murphy carried him for several blocks.

The child did not know where he lived or his mother’s name. Residents didn’t recognize the boy and the child pointed this way and that, Murphy said.

“After awhile, he gave up and started to cry because he was lost,” Murphy said.

Enter Murphy’s police dog, Sarik.

With the boy in the care of another officer, Murphy got Sarik to track the boy’s scent to his home. One person reported having seen the child near Front Avenue and Victoria Street, so Murphy and Sarik searched that area.

Murphy saw a toy truck in a yard a few blocks away and Sarik was drawn to it, Murphy said. And there was another clue: The home’s screen door was closed, but the interior door was ajar as the air-conditioning was running. The officer knocked on the door and an 11-year-old girl answered. She turned out to be the boy’s sister, and she told Murphy that the boy left when she was sleeping.

When Murphy talked to the boy’s mother by phone, she told the officer that she’d gone to the hospital that morning and that his sister was going to be watching him.

But when the boy woke up, he apparently didn’t know where his mother was and left to try to find her. He walked about four blocks from home. The family was unaware the boy was gone and his mother was relieved he was found, Murphy said.

While police dogs frequently search for people or evidence, it can be more difficult to do a backtrack, Murphy said.

“We teach the dogs to track to the source,” Murphy said. “He wanted to go in the direction where we found the boy, and I had to keep having him backtrack.”

Duncan, the woman concerned for the child’s safety Monday, said she was amazed that Sarik could track the boy’s scent to his home.

“With all the wind and other scents outside, I knew they could search for drugs, but I never truly imagined that a dog could help like that,” she said.

On Monday, when Duncan stopped the little boy to talk to him, she said he was intent on finding his mom.

She asked him to come in her yard and offered him food, saying she was planning to call the police then, but the child ran away from her. Duncan chased him down the block and another woman stopped him about a block away.

“I just knew as a mom, if my kids had been missing like that, I would have freaked out,” Duncan said. “My maternal instincts took over and I knew I had to help this kid.”

Others were trying to help, too. A man who saw the boy come out of an alley was on the phone with police, Duncan said. And when the officer happened to drive by and stop, Duncan shouted to him for help.

It’s not unusual for police or residents to find children who’ve left a home in St. Paul when relatives are sleeping, and the family in this case doesn’t face criminal charges, Murphy said.

In many cases, a relative reports a child missing as police are searching for the family and they are reunited. If that doesn’t happen and the officer can’t find the family, the child is placed with Ramsey County Child Protection until relatives are located.

Murphy, a St. Paul officer for just over 20 years, said he was happy to get the boy home safely on Monday.

“He was scared, and it’s always nice when you have a lost child like that and they find a relative they recognize,” he said.