For the second time this week, Johnston County state troopers have located a missing person.
Around 6:00pm Saturday, Johnston County state troopers were notified of a missing 87 year-old man from West Palm Beach, Florida who was traveling northbound on Interstate 95 through North Carolina.
Florida law enforcement officers were tracking the driver’s location using his cell phone.
Troopers learned the man was driving a silver Ford Fusion and was last tracked to a location on I-95 in Harnett County still headed northbound.
Johnston County state troopers M.E. Sellers, C.O. Best, Z.B. Price and H.D. Nazal began patrolling northbound I-95 and soon learned the driver had been tracked to I-95 in Four Oaks.
The troopers located the vehicle between Four Oaks and Smithfield and conducted a traffic stop. The elderly driver was confused and unable to explain why he was more than 700 miles from his home in the West Palm Beach, Florida area. The driver also told troopers he thought he was in New York.
The 87 year-old man couldn’t tell troopers the last time he ate. The officers accompanied the man to a local restaurant and treated him to a healthy dinner.
Troopers contacted his two daughters who both lived out of state. At their request, he was taken to Johnston Medical Center in Smithfield Saturday night for evaluation.
Family members arrived in Johnston County on Sunday morning to pick up the man and return to Florida.
This is the second time this week Johnston County troopers have located a missing person. Around 5:30am Tuesday, Trooper J.J. Kiser was on routine patrol on US 70 in Princeton and spotted a speeding truck traveling westbound in the eastbound lane towards his patrol car.
Trooper Kiser was able to stop the truck before it struck his cruiser or another motorist. The driver was a missing 85 year-old Lumberton man who had been reported missing to the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office a few hours earlier.
Troopers drove the missing man and his handicapped passenger to Fayetteville to reunite them with their loved ones.
