Authorities are calling it a holiday miracle. A 78-year-old man with dementia who went missing two days before Christmas in Malibu was found within hours with the help of drones equipped with thermal imaging cameras, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Sheriff officials said in a written statement posted on Facebook that the elderly man was reported missing at about 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 23. A caller told dispatchers that the man had dementia and had left his home to retrieve his mail at 4:30 p.m. but had not returned and could not be found after a search of the area.
Sheriff’s officials said they immediately created a missing person’s report and notified the surrounding stations as temperatures were in the high 40s but dropping. The department said the search and rescue team with the sheriff’s Lost Hills/Malibu Station used drones equipped with thermal imaging cameras to help search the area where the man had gone missing.
At 8:50 p.m. that same day, the drones located the man lying in a field of thick brush off the side of a roadway about a quarter-mile from his home.
On the social media site X, the Malibu Search and Rescue Team shared photos of the operation. Among them was a grainy gray screen with a red image of the man lying in the brush.
“Upon arriving on scene, the rescuers observed the missing man suffering from cold related illness, confused and unable to walk,” one of the posts read. “He was evaluated, wrapped in a blanket, and placed in a rescue basket.”
The Sheriff’s Department said the man was transported by paramedics to a local hospital. His condition was unknown.
The Sheriff’s Department said the operation showed the value of using drones.
“A miracle just in time for the holidays,” the department wrote on X.
The American Civil Liberties Union said drones have many beneficial uses, including for search and rescue operations, scientific research and mapping. But the ACLU also worries that they could be misused to violate people’s privacy rights.
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