Missing elderly man rescued by police dog in Wadebridge

 

Police dog Eddie and his handler, Police Constable Colin Harper located a vulnerable, elderly missing man this morning in the Wadebridge area.   The man aged 90 years had been reported missing by his wife at 6.50pm yesterday evening after he failed to return from a walk. He was last seen at 2.00pm when he set off on his walk on the Camel trail.   Following a search he was located at around 10.50am this morning lying in a field. He was taken to hospital by ambulance for a check but was not injured.   The search was hampered by poor weather conditions which prevented the use of both the police helicopter and the navy search and rescue helicopter.   When he failed to return the alarm was raised and police officers, together with members of the Cornwall search & rescue group, the Coastguard and RNLI. This initial search failed to locate him and another co-ordinated search commenced this morning in daylight.   Police Constable Colin Harper and Eddie were tasked to search an area around Tregunna near Wadebridge and soon located the man. Constable Harper commented, “After searching a couple of fields Edie detected a scent of something. Edie ran into another field, and lying near a boundary hedge was the missing man. “He was cold, wet and confused but thankfully alive and in not too bad a shape given the fact he had not been seen for 21 hours and had been out all night in the poor weather. With the aid of the Coastguard he was taken to an awaiting ambulance and taken to Hospital.”