Drone technology helped find an elderly man with dementia on Monday after he went to get the mail from the mailbox of his Malibu home but did not return.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Search and Rescue team, Malibu SAR, was called to help find the 78-year-old around 4:30 p.m. The temperature was 48 degrees and dropping.
The agency said several drones with infrared heat-seeking technology were deployed and the pilot “observed a significant heat signature on the side of the roadway in dense brush,” Malibu Search and Rescue wrote on X.
Teams were sent to the motionless figure with medical equipment and evacuation equipment. “When they arrived on the scene, rescuers saw the missing man suffering from a cold illness, confused and unable to walk.”
The man was examined, wrapped in a blanket and taken to an ambulance and paramedics for treatment.
Malibu SAR said this incident proved the value of the newly adopted drones.
