{"id":202749,"date":"2026-03-23T18:19:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T18:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/202749\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T18:19:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T18:19:08","slug":"an-elderly-man-vanishes-in-the-dark-how-florida-deputies-used-tech-to-track-him-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/202749\/","title":{"rendered":"An elderly man vanishes in the dark. How Florida deputies used tech to track him down"},"content":{"rendered":"

LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A 79-year-old man reported missing early Sunday in Lehigh Acres was safely located within minutes thanks to a Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/a> drone team, authorities said.<\/p>\n

Deputies responded around 6:15 a.m. to the near 700 Hightower Avenue South after the man, who has multiple medical conditions, wandered away from his home. As units began searching the neighborhood, LCSO drone operators deployed aerial equipment to expand the search area quickly.<\/p>\n

According to the sheriff\u2019s office, the drone located the missing man in under ten minutes. Deputies reached him soon after, and medical personnel cleared him at the scene.<\/p>\n

“How are you, sir? What’s your name?” The deputy asked.<\/p>\n

“Leroy,” the elderly man said. <\/p>\n

“Leroy?’ The deputy said. <\/p>\n

“That’s the one we were looking for?” The man said. <\/p>\n

“Yeah, you. Have a seat, buddy. We’re going to get you back home,” the deputy responded.<\/p>\n

See also: Palm Beach advances Paramount Theatre redevelopment with tighter operating rules<\/a><\/p>\n

He was reunited with his family, who were provided information and a referral to LCSO\u2019s ReUnite Program <\/a>\u2014 a resource designed to help caregivers register vulnerable individuals in case of future emergencies.<\/p>\n

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The sheriff\u2019s office credited rapid technology deployment and coordinated response efforts for the successful outcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A 79-year-old man reported missing early Sunday in Lehigh Acres was safely located…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-202749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}