Police rescue elderly couple

Getting lost sucks. Imagine how much worse it is when you’re in your 80s, it’s pouring rain and you’re in the middle of the woods 220 miles away from home.
That’s what happened to an elderly Pennsylvania couple on April 21 and 22. A County officer responding to a call about an abandoned vehicle north of White Hall at Brown’s Cove, sensed something wasn’t right since the car had not been reported as either stolen or missing. A 200-man search and rescue effort began at 7am Saturday and lasted for 12 hours, until the woman was discovered around 6:30 at night; her husband had been found that morning within a half-mile of the car, according to Lt. John Teixeira of the Albemarle County police department.
Both husband and wife suffered “serious medical issues,” says Teixeira, were “disoriented and confused,” and were treated at the UVA Hospital, but he would not comment further.
Albemarle County police get only a limited amount of training when it comes to the intersection of social service and policing. According to Teixeira, once basic police work is done, cases like this are handed over to social service. With the Pennsylvania couple, Teixeira says that the police will turn their report over to local social services which will, in turn, contact agencies in Pennsylvania.—Nell Boeschenstein