The Only Clue in the Conversation... Police Officer Finds Home of 102-Year-Old Dementia Grandmother Whose Fingerprints Can't Be Checked

No ID or Cell Phone, Even Fingerprints Worn Out
"Next to Our Trash Yard" Leads to Neighborhood Inquiry

"Our house is next to the garbage dump."

A story about a rookie police officer who found the home of a 102-year-old grandmother suffering from dementia, who could not find her way back, based on this single clue, has recently become a hot topic.

At around 11:30 a.m. on the 26th of last month, Police Officer Eunseong Jo of the Iro Police Substation in Mokpo, Jeollanam-do, received a dementia patient, Ms. A, who was brought in by a taxi driver saying, "The elderly passenger does not know her home." At that time, Ms. A had difficulty moving and entered the police station using a cane.

Police Officer Eunseong Jo of Iro Police Substation, Mokpo, Jeonnam [Photo by Mokpo Police Station]

Officer Jo tried to check Ms. A’s fingerprints, but they were worn out and could not be verified. Moreover, Ms. A did not have any ID or mobile phone, and she could not remember her home address, family details, or any personal information. Despite these difficult circumstances, Officer Jo did not give up and continued to communicate with the grandmother.

The only clue obtained during the conversation was the phrase, "Our house is next to the garbage dump." Officer Jo put Ms. A in the patrol car and spent about 40 minutes canvassing apartment complexes in the area to find the "garbage dump." During this process, when they found a garbage dump at one apartment complex, Ms. A said, "Our house," allowing them to locate her home.

In the video capturing the situation, after arriving at the apartment complex where Ms. A lives, Officer Jo held her hand to support her and escorted her to the front door of her home. Ms. A bowed to Officer Jo in gratitude. Then, Officer Jo saw the phone number of Ms. A’s son written inside the house, contacted him to explain the situation, and informed him about the dementia patient wandering detection system and other measures to prevent missing incidents. Ms. A’s family also expressed their gratitude to Officer Jo, saying, "Thank you so much for finding our mother."

Officer Jo is a rookie police officer who has been on the force for only nine months, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, who was also a police officer. He humbly said, "I thought of my grandfather and grandmother at home," and added, "As a police officer who must protect the lives and property of the people, I just did what I was supposed to do."

Meanwhile, in October of last year, police in Jeju City tracked 100 closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras to rescue a missing dementia patient from a thicket about 40 hours after the disappearance. According to statistics from the National Police Agency, more than 20,000 reports of missing dementia patients are received annually, and unfortunately, some are never found. If a dementia patient has a wandering detection device, GPS technology allows caregivers to check the patient’s location in real time every five minutes, and if the patient leaves up to three designated safe zones, an alert message is sent to the family to prevent accidents. Some local governments provide wandering detection devices free of charge to dementia patients.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.