A police officer in Victoria, B.C., went out of his way to help a lost woman with dementia return safely to her home by buying a plane ticket for missing elderly. His act of kindness was immediately picked up by the Internet. On August 6 last year, the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line’s Jewel of the Sea reported one of their passengers, a 65-year-old tourist, did not return to their ship that evening. The last time she was seen was at 10 am that day.
Police Officer Use A Plane Ticket for Missing Elderly
Victoria Police searched for the missing elderly woman and she was eventually found by the Fairmont Empress Hotel staff. Feeling confused and disoriented, the staff brought her immediately to the hospital for examination.
RAND Corporation
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According to the woman’s family, the elderly had been showing some symptoms of dementia. From the hospital, the police officer accompanied her to the airport to buy a plane ticket for missing elderly to Buffalo, New York, where she resides, as the senior woman wanted to go back to her family.
Unfortunately, the elderly’s credit card was declined. After learning this, one of the police officers, K9 officer Cst. Andre Almeida offered to used his own credit card and paid for the plane ticket for missing elderly so she could go back home safely to her family.
“There was no other way to ensure she would make it back home,” Almeida said. “She needed help. It could be my mom stranded somewhere and I would hope that someone would help.”
The police officer escorted her to Victoria airport the next morning to make sure that she did not miss her flight. But he was surprised when Alaska Airlines’s staff told him that they would refund the money he spent on the elderly woman’s ticket.
Metro
Almeida was praised for his kindness, but he quickly diverted their praises, saying, “Alaska Airlines, the Fairmont Empress staff, the staff at Royal Jubilee Hospital, the Commissionaires, they all should be thanked for helping get an ill and scared woman back to her family.”
The police said the elderly woman is now back in her home in New York, safe with her family.
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