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Puppy hits gas pedal, drives car into Canton pond

CANTON, Mass. (MyFoxBoston.com) -- Rosie is a 12-week-old German shepherd puppy who was excited to jump into the car her owner was driving. In her enthusiasm, however, she got tangled up with the gas pedal, and got in over her head.

"She's a handful," said Rosie's owner, John Costello.

Costello says it all started after he'd taken this normally frisky puppy for a walk by Bolivar Pond in Canton. He hopped into his car, and started it up, but Rosie had her own ideas.

"The dog jumped in and hit the gear shift and the car jerked and she fell on top of the gas pedal," Costello said. "It was just scary."

Then, he said, his puppy drove the car into the pond.

"The car went for a swim. We all did."

That's right: Rosie launched this car right into Bolivar Pond.

"[The] car was right here you can see the tracks," Costello said.

The 911 call even surprised Canton police.

"I've never heard of a puppy driving a car into a pond," said Officer Robert Quirk of the Canton police.

But Officer Quirk never met Rosie. Getting her out of the car wouldn't prove to be easy.

"When the car first went into the water, I jumped out to grab the dog and she jumped into the back seat," Costello said.

And that's when Eric Hermann, who was working nearby, rushed to help.

"It was about 30 feet out the car," Hermann said. "Puppy was scared and ran to the back seat. The front door was open, [we were] trying to get him out the front door, coax him."

Hermann, Costello and another man all swam to save Rosie.

"I just leaped in and grabbed the dog and pulled her out and we both fell back into the water," said Costello.

The water level soon rose to be over Hermann's head.

"By the time we got the puppy out, the car had slid and we had to do a little swimming," he said.

But they all made it safely to shore in the end.

"I'm glad they were there cause if they weren't there, I don't know what I would have done," Costello said.

Both the Canton police and fire departments arrived at the pond to help out, and remove the car from the water.

Canton police posted this lighthearted tweet, with a picture of the pup and a caption that read, "Perp says she was just going with the flow of traffic."

And Hermann says it's a day he won't soon forget.

"I work a lot of weekends and none as exciting as this one," he said.

As for Costello, the car - his daughter's - is a total a loss, but he says he has insurance. As for Rosie - she's ok - and unaware of all the commotion she caused Sunday.