Officers locate lost 74-year-old [Video]… Also, in other news: body found in Hyannis woods…
Photo: Patrolman Carl Hill gives the recently located elderly man a lift “home…” (Insert photo is of the body removed from woods earlier today – see ‘In other news…’ below)
Barnstable – Just before 5pm, Barnstable Patrol Officers responded to a large wooded area just west of Old Jail Lane and south of the Lothrop Hill Cemetery after a 74-year-old man called dispatch stating he was lost.
Police were running out of time as sunset was quickly approaching at 5:26pm today…
Temperatures were just below freezing and dropping…
The Massachusetts State Police Air Wing was notified in preparation for getting a helicopter above the area…
Patrolman Steve O’Brien coordinated search efforts from inside dispatch at police headquarters. He utilized cellphone tracking software and direct communications with the lost man to get him walking toward strategically placed squad cars that had their sirens blaring…
The lost man also was equipped with a small metal compass which helped in getting him headed in the right direction…
Patrolmen out on the ground received text messages containing the lost man’s phone number, as well as an aerial photo of his estimated location…
Thanks to the teamwork and organized efforts of O’Brien, Patrolmen Carl Hill and Jeff Jackson, along with Sergeant David Myett, the lost elderly gentleman made his way in from the cold just before dark…
The State Police helicopter was not needed after all.
The elderly man also happened to be homeless and Patrolman Hill gave him a lift to the Noah Shelter on Winter Street in Hyannis where he un-shouldered his backpack and warmed up.
The following brief video shows the scene and use of sirens just prior to locating the man… (The video is unsteady at first due me just arriving and not having time to set up properly as the scene was quickly closing up…) [Press play]
In other news:
Not every homeless person makes it in from the cold...
The body of another homeless man was found in some Hyannis woods earlier today...
Hyannis – Barnstable and State police removed the body of man from a homeless camp in the woods off Nantucket Street earlier this afternoon...
Unofficial sources say the man was a 39-year-old homeless person...
He reportedly was discovered by one of his friends...
It's likely the man died due to being exposed to the cold.
Last week, Hyannis News observed a set of footprints heading in toward the camp. The footprints were not fresh and there were no footprints heading out from the woods, just in... I was unable to investigate the day I saw the prints, but had suspicions as to whether there may have been been a body inside one of the tents out at that particular camp... which wouldn't be uncommon. I had recently taken photos of the camp earlier in the winter... I grew up near several homeless camps and it's not unusual to find bodies in the wooded areas around my Hyannis neighborhood. It seems like it happens at least once every winter season...
The man's identity has not been released by police and the death is being investigated by Barnstable Police, Massachusetts State Police detectives and the medical examiner.
The body was removed from the woods at around 2pm...
The following photo, taken earlier this winter, is of the tent where today's body was found...
The following photos were taken of the tent today after the body was found...
In other news:
There was drama on the village green yesterday as police rushed to assist an officer with a combative homeless man.
The man reportedly had been drinking all day and, despite being belligerent at first, officers were able to tactfully calm him down by talking.
He was transported back to Barnstable Police Headquarters where he was taken into protective custody and booked for Disorderly Conduct.
2/25/2014
Robert Bastille, HyannisNews.com
P.S. – I'd like to end tonight's HyTown Vignette on a lighter note with J. Geils' “Must of Got Lost...” [Press play]
