Tuesday January 27th 2015
Last Tuesday morning a 70 year old woman from Penicuik went to visit a friend at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary hospital but after the visit she went missing. Her family and friends became very worried so they called the Police. Everyone spent the afternoon trying to find her but to no avail. As it was such a freezing evening the Police became so worried that they put out an appeal on the STV news and also updated the Police facebook page asking for the public’s help in finding the woman.
That evening a reluctant jogger in the Dalkeith area of Midlothian, prepared to go out in the freezing cold for an evening run. As he wasn’t keen on going he procrastinated for a while by looking at Facebook on his phone. “Oh look at this” he said to his wife who works at the hospital, “this poor lady has gone missing.” “Yes, there were a number of Police at the hospital this afternoon” she replied, “I hope they find her on such a cold evening.”
At that the jogger put on his wooly hat and gloves and set off on his run. He was just a hundred yards from home when he saw a woman cross the deserted roundabout ahead of him. Thinking she was dressed in a similar coat to the woman on facebook he ran a bit faster to catch her up. As he passed he glanced over but nothing looked untoward and she looked just like a lady walking purposefully to get somewhere.
He ran on a little but then had a nagging feeling that it was the woman. Surely not he thought that would be just too much of a coincidence. But he stopped and decided to let the woman pass her. As she passed he said, “Excuse me is your name Margaret?”, for he had fortunately remembered her name from looking at facebook just five minutes earlier. “Yes”, she replied. “And were you visiting someone at hospital today?” he asked, but now pretty certain it was the woman the Police were looking for. “Yes”, she replied. “Margaret, your family, friends and the Police are looking for you. They are very worried. Can I walk you to the Police Station around the corner”. She agreed, though she seemed quite bemused.
The Police were very relieved she had been found and contacted her family and she was reunited with them not long after.
The jogger, who would prefer to remain anonymous, said he was delighted to have found her and was amazed at the luck involved. “If I had decided it was too cold to go for a run. If I hadn’t looked at facebook before I left. If I had left just 30 seconds earlier than I did then I would have passed the roundabout before Margaret got there. It was an extremely cold evening, so I shudder to think what could have happened”.
The jogger is keen that others are aware of and like the Police facebook pages Lothians & Scottish Borders Police Division and Midlothian Police.
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