An Old Westbury Police Officer found a missing Freeport man suffering from dementia on New Year’s Eve.
Jose Rodriguez, 83, was unable to find his way home on Dec. 30 after leaving the Lynbrook bakery where he works on the way to his Freeport home five miles away, according to detectives. Rodriguez was first reported missing Dec. 30 at 11:45 p.m.
When initially reported missing, Rodriguez’s last known location was a gas station in the Roslyn Heights area. Fourteen hours later license plate readers identified his car, a gray 2012 Toyota Camry.
Old Westbury Police Officer Thomas Gorman and other officers were responding to an accident on the eastern-bound part of the Long Island Expressway when they were notified of the match on the vehicle associated with Rodriguez.
The car was going east on Jericho Turnpike, east of Glen Cove Road in the Village of Westbury. Gorman and two other officers left the accident scene and began heading to the initial origin of the camera match.
Just 30 seconds after exiting the westbound portion of the Long Island Expressway, Gorman identified the gray Camry that was associated with Rodriguez, which was going east. Gorman followed the car, whose license plate matched that of the missing Camry.
Gorman turned his emergency lights on, and Rodriguez got off at Exit 41 on the Long Island Expressway. Rodriguez drove directly under a highway message board displaying the vehicle description from his Silver Alert. Gorman then exited his car and approached him.
“For somebody that was lost he was extremely with it, he recognized I was a police officer,” Gorman said in an interview with Schneps Media Long Island.
Rodriguez said after leaving work, he was driving around and didn’t know where he was, according to Gorman. The officer also said Rodriguez took a nap after work.
“He knew exactly where he lived. I guess whatever was going on mentally he wasn’t able to get himself there,” Gorman said.
After finding Rodriguez, Gorman said he was driven to the Old Westbury Police Department headquarters where he was then picked up by family.The first person who came was a family friend of Rodriguez, followed by his niece, who then took him back to his Freeport apartment where he was reunited with his family.
Rodriguez did not need any medical attention. “I asked him if he needed to go to the hospital or anything, and he said no. I just want some sleep,” Gorman said.
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