Officials 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 a drone equipped with a thermal imaging camera, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.
The sheriff’s office announced in a Facebook post that an elderly man was reported missing on Dec. 23 around 7:30 p.m. The caller told dispatchers that the man had dementia and had left his home at 4:30 to pick up his mail. By the afternoon, he had not returned, and we searched the area but could not find him.
Deputies said the temperature was in the low 40s but had dropped, so they immediately filed a missing persons report and notified surrounding stations. The sheriff’s Lost Hills-Malibu Station search and rescue team used a drone equipped with a thermal imaging camera to help search the area where the man went missing, the department said.
At 8:50 p.m. on the same day, the drone spotted a man lying in a bushy field by the side of the road about 400 meters from his home.
Miraculously, I made it in time for the holidays! Monday, December 23rd from 7:30 p.m. @MalibuSAR A 78-year-old man went missing from his home and a search was requested. #malibu. The informant told us that the missing man went to the mailbox at 4:30 p.m. to pick up his mail, but never came back to pick up his mail. pic.twitter.com/f1KBo51aRX
— Malibu Search Rescue (@MalibuSAR) December 25, 2024
On social media site X, the Malibu Search and Rescue Team shared photos from the operation. Inside was a grainy gray screen with a red image of a man lying in the bushes.
“Rescue teams arriving at the scene observed the missing man suffering from a cold-related illness, confused and unable to walk,” one post reads. “He was examined, wrapped in a blanket and placed in a rescue basket.”
The man was taken to a local hospital by paramedics, the sheriff’s office said. His condition was unknown.
The sheriff’s office said the operation demonstrated the value of using drones.
The ministry described X as “a miracle that arrived in time for the holidays.”
The American Civil Liberties Union said drones have many beneficial uses, including search and rescue operations, scientific research and mapping. But the ACLU is also concerned that they could be misused to violate people’s privacy rights.
