Alert cop traces missing elderly Alzheimer's patient

The presence of mind of a detection officer of Mumbai Police helped tracing a missing senior citizen who is suffering from Alzheimer's.

The 76-year-old man Abraham Menezes is the resident of Versova and had gone for a morning walk with his wife at Park Plaza garden, Yari Road on Tuesday.

But while taking the rounds, Menezes’ wife lost the track of him. She searched him in the park but could not find him.

“My mother immediately alerted us and we registered his missing complaint at Versova police station,” said Shirley, daughter of Abraham.

Menezes family resorted to take the help of social media and posted Abraham’s photo with the details. These were widely circulated. The same details with picture of elderly person was posted on police internal WhatsApp group by a senior IPS officer.

A team from Cuffe Parade police was on patrolling duty in the afternoon when a detection officer Vaibhav Kadam found an elderly person roaming aimlessly.

“Kadam matched the photograph with the elderly person. Our officer inquired with him but he was not giving proper reply, so the man was brought to police station,” said Rashmi Jadhav, senior inspector of Cuffe Parade police station.

Later, Kadam called the numbers given in the message and gave basic details of the elderly man. “Luckily, he was the same missing man about whom the message was doing rounds on social media to search for him. His son and wife reached police station and we have handed him over to them. We have also suggested Menezes family to keep an identity card with proper name, contact numbers and address in his pockets in case he goes missing again,” said Jadhav.

After taking Abraham along with them to their home in Versova, the Menezes family informed Versova police station and gave an application to cancel the missing complaint.