Dear Resident,

It's 6.56am on a weekday morning. Some people are going into work, others are on an early dog walk, and the lucky are still in bed.

But it was a morning out of the ordinary for one resident in St Neots on Thursday. She was approached by an elderly man who asked her to call the police.

Worried for his safety, the woman took him into her own home but he was stuttering, confused and making little sense. When asked where he lived, the man replied only with ‘up north’.

The man in his 80s was carrying his toothbrush. He was also wearing slippers and no jacket. The caller kindly said she was happy to keep him safe in her home while we made further checks.

She asked him again where he lived, but he said he couldn’t remember and seemed apologetic about this.

We called nearby care homes and were lucky with the second one we checked, where staff said they were aware the man was missing and had staff out looking for him. 

The call handler passed on the man’s location to concerned care home staff, who visited the kind woman’s home roughly a third of a mile away and were reunited with their missing resident.

Thank you to the woman who took the time out of her morning to help the missing man and took him into her own home. 

Have you heard of the Herbert Protocol? It can be incredibly useful and help find people with dementia if they go missing. We regularly highlight the scheme, but feel free to share this eCops message and help spread the word. 

The Herbert Protocol encourages family and friends to keep a document that will help officers in the event a loved one goes missing by collating key pieces of information, such as a physical description, familiar places, health details and an up-to-date photo.

For more information or to download a Herbert Protocol form, visit our dedicated web page.

Kind regards,