Ton Schellekens (63)

On Friday 10 May, we received the sad news that our colleague Ton Schellekens had died at home after a very short illness. Ton was diagnosed with a serious and incurable illness last week. After more than a week, he passed away peacefully under his own steam. Ton was married to Meta, father of Irish and Esmee and proud grandfather. He was 63 years old. Ton was due to retire next October after 44 years of service. Something he was very much looking forward to. Ton had a great career and was a police officer at heart.
Ton as a dog handler
In 1980, he started training with the State Police in Horn. On 1 October 1981, he was promoted to sentry and started in basic policing in the Heesch, Rosmalen and Helvoirt country groups. Ton then made his first metres in detective work. After his promotion to sentry 1st class in 1986, he was posted to the Serious Crime Department as a detective in 1989. In 1998, Ton successfully applied for a job as an officer dog handler in the Aa & Dommel district, team West, stationed in Boxtel. That turned out to be a perfect combination. During that time, Ton felt like a fish out of water and made a name for himself as a dog handler in and around Boxtel. On working weekends, he could always be found with his regular team and his dog in Horeca Boxtel. The passion splashed off.
Ton and good police work
In 2005, he chose to continue in the Boxtel police force without a dog. In