FREEPORT, NY – An alert Long Island police officer found a missing man with dementia at a fateful location on Tuesday.
Carolyn Gusoff of CBS News New York spoke with the relieved family.
“I Knew I Was Lost”
Jose Rodriguez, 83, was recently diagnosed with dementia and couldn’t find his way home on Monday. He left the Lynbrook bakery where he works and headed to his home in Freeport, just five miles away.
“I knew I was lost,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez drove for hours, lost without a cell phone. He managed to call his wife to say he was lost, and his distressed relatives followed the call to a Roslyn gas station.
“The whole family was just distraught and obviously thinking the worst,” cousin France Pichardo said. “Myself and a few family members were just looking… to see if we could find him. We went to the gas station.”
“Very sad. I was too nervous,” Rodriguez’s wife said.
“She suffered, and I suffered too,” Rodriguez said.
His loved ones filed a missing persons report, which was immediately shared with other authorities.
Rodriguez said he got so tired trying to find his way home that he stopped at a hotel, but there were no rooms. He eventually fell asleep and hit the road again the next morning.
“It was there and said to the police officer: look, he is there”
On Tuesday, more than 14 hours after Rodriguez went missing, license plate readers pinged his car.
Longtime Westbury Police Officer Thomas Gorman saw it and followed as Rodriguez drove directly under a highway message board with his Silver Alert vehicle description.
“It was there and told the police officer, look, he’s there,” said Rodriguez’s daughter-in-law Mariela Cruz.
The relieved family was reunited at the police station, 17 miles from where Rodriguez left.
“Sometimes it’s really bad news, and this was an absolutely heartwarming story to be able to reunite family members,” Gorman said.
“Oh, very happy. Oh my God, my husband in my house,” said Rodriguez’s wife.
“Relieved and grateful, happy, because we don’t want to start 2025 with a tragedy,” Cruz said. “One hundred percent grateful for them.”
The family says they will now take steps to keep Rodriguez safe as they celebrate a Happy New Year, the couple’s 51st anniversary together, and more.
Carolyn Gusoff
