An Alexandria man with dementia who wandered more than a mile from his home was recovered by the Alexandria Sheriff’s Office earlier this month.
ASO Lieutenant Victor Ignacio noticed an Alexandria Police Department dispatch for a missing person on Nov. 3, identifying the man as a participant in Project Lifesaver. The program provides free, trackable bracelets for residents at risk of wandering due to conditions like Alzheimer’s or autism.
The man had been gone for over an hour and was about to walk onto Interstate 95 when Ignacio and ASO Deputy Carlos Canas found him. The man was wearing one of the program’s bracelets, which are equipped with a radio transmitter that emits a beeping signal to receivers at the Sheriff’s Office.
“It’s a very simple technology that uses radio frequency, and you can’t go wrong with it,” Canas said. “You do all this training, and you’re so used to hearing that chirp — but then when you actually hear it, like, when you’re out there, you’re like, ‘Okay, we really need to find this guy.’ And then you hear the chirp, it’s awesome. It’s a good feeling.”
Ignacio and Canas returned the man to his wife and son, who had fallen asleep before the man went missing.
“It’s satisfying to us, but it’s more satisfying for his wife,” Ignacio said. “She was working at the time, and she was very happy that we were able to find him when he was unharmed.”
Project Lifesaver has helped recover six people over the last 14 years, according to the Project Lifesaver website. The program currently has 10 participants, who are required to live in Alexandria, have a caregiver and agree to wear the bracelet.
The first Project Lifesaver was founded in 1999 at a sheriff’s office in Chesapeake and has helped recover thousands of people worldwide since.
Alexandria adopted the program in 2008, and it is currently funded by private donations.
“Project Lifesaver is a critical resource that supports some of our most vulnerable residents and its proven technology helps our deputies secure a swift and safe return when a client does go missing,” Sheriff Sean Casey told ALXnow in an email. “We’ve had three rescues in the past three years and I’m certainly proud of that record.”
Ignacio said the public should prioritize contacting authorities if a loved one goes missing, as the average person can usually walk up to three miles per hour.
