A Michigan Police Dog Named Rocco Needed Surgery After Eating Rocks

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Oct. 31, 2026 — A police dog in Michigan is named Rocco. This week, a veterinary team had to take a stomach full of rocks out of him, and nobody involved is pretending that isn't funny.

It started with leftovers. Rocco's handler, Grand Rapids police officer Austin Diekevers, had made beef sandwiches in a crock pot and tossed the scraps off his deck for his chickens, WWMT News Channel 3 reported. Some of the juice landed on his landscaping rocks.

"I made some old beef sandwiches in a crock pot," Diekevers told the station. "Usually feed our chickens the scraps, and I threw it over my deck, and some of the crock pot juice got on some of my landscaping rocks."

In the few minutes it took him to put the crock pot away, Rocco found the rocks. "I could see that he was trying to, like, chew the rocks," Diekevers said. He called the vet right away and was told not to worry as long as the dog kept eating, drinking and going to the bathroom normally.

For about a day, he did. Then Rocco started eating less. Diekevers felt the dog's stomach and could hear the rocks moving around inside. An X-ray at the Animal Emergency and Specialty Hospital of Byron Center showed his stomach was full of them, and he went into surgery.

"Rocco came through surgery like a champ and spent 24 hours with us before heading home," the hospital said on social media, according to UPI. The hospital is now inviting people to guess how many rocks came out. There's no prize, just bragging rights.

It was not Rocco's first emergency this year. In April he impaled his leg on a fire pit, hit a major artery and needed blood transfusions. "Rocco's unfortunately a frequent flier of the animal hospital there," Diekevers said.

He's still on restrictions while the incision heals, but his handler says he's back to his "normal, happy, very high paced self" and should return to work in about a week. The rocks, presumably, will be kept out of reach.