In what sounds like a "Lassie" episode, a black and white Shih Tzu named Chibbs may have saved his owner's life after slipping his harness and ending up in the Middletown police station.

On March 25, Chibbs was picked up along Schoolhouse Road in Londonderry Township by Terri Coble of Middletown.

"I slowed down and he came around to the driver's door. I opened the door and he jumped right in," said Coble. This was just after midnight, so she said she didn't want to start knocking on doors.

Coble and her sister took the dog to the Middletown police station, where Officer James Bennett scanned it for a microchip. He was able to identify the owner - Floyd Maitland - and headed to Maitland's home when there was no answer on his phone.

No one answered the door, so he walked around to the back of the house and found Maitland, 82, lying face down on the ground, unconscious, in his pajamas in the cold.

Bennett checked his airway, grabbed a blanket and called an ambulance. It appeared he had fallen against a concrete well cover, and had injured his arm.

Maitland was suffering from hypothermia and may have been out there for a few hours, Bennett said.

He was taken to Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, where his daughter, Lisa Sevison, said he is recovering.

It appears the dog slipped his collar and ran off, Bennett said.

"I don't know if I want to call it a Lassie moment, but it's quite possible, I guess," he said.

Sevison, who is Maitland's step-daughter, credits Chibbs with survival of her step-father, who lives with her.

"If it wouldn't have been for this dog, he would have died, because no one would have found him," said Sevison, who was away that night.

"He's our little life-saver and he loves his dad - he loves people. We couldn't live without the little thing," she said of 5-year-old Chibbs.

This isn't the first time Chibbs was with his owner when he fell. One day last summer, Maitland fell in the yard. Chibbs escaped his leash and laid on Maitland's chest until Sevison got home.

While Maitland didn't break any bones during the recent fall, he was hypothermic, with a body temperature of 25 Celsius, instead of the normal 36, Sevison said.

"The wonderful staff of the intensive care and ER at Hershey helped him get his body temp back up," she said.

He will likely be entering a rehabilitation facility soon to further recover, Sevison said.

He's asking about Chibbs, and was happy to see pictures that Sevison had on her phone. "He can't wait to be reunited with Chibbs," she said.

Sevison thanks police for their quick response the night of her stepfather's recent fall, and with going "above and beyond" in making sure her house was secured. They even gathered Chibbs' belongings, food and toys until she could get someone to pick him up that night.

Sevison said Chibbs' leash was wrapped around the bird feeder pole, and she said Maitland may have been trying to untangle the dog when he fell. He doesn't remember what happened.

Maitland got Chibbs from the Humane Society of Dauphin County in February 2016.