From Strawberries to a Citizen Alert, Another Missing Person Was Found
“She’s in the park. Omg. I just gave her strawberries” — Josy Chaparro
Josmil Chaparro was playing with her children at Devoe Park in the Bronx Tuesday evening after work.
On a nearby bench sat an elderly woman. Josy’s kids approached her to show off their toys, and they began to play together under the early evening sun.
As they played, Josy smiled and said hello. “I asked if she lived around here, if she was hungry. She didn’t respond, but I offered her some strawberries, which she ate,” Josy recalled.
Josy snapped a picture of the woman playing with her son to send to her boyfriend. “She seemed sweet but… something about it didn’t really make sense,” she recalled.
Eventually Josy’s family left the park. Arriving home just a few blocks away, she pulled out her phone and saw an alert from Citizen: Search for Missing Elderly Woman
Tapping into the app, she read a description of the woman:
The missing person is described as a 5'1", 83-year-old Black woman, last seen wearing a beige shirt and sweater and going westbound on 197th Street.
She quickly checked the picture she snapped earlier. It was her.
Immediately, she ran downstairs and commented in the Citizen chat: “She’s in the park. Omg. I just gave her strawberries”
She commented with more info, updating Citizen users with the exact area she last saw her. She was determined to help. As the sun set, Josy ran back to the park.
Meanwhile, one of the elderly woman’s family members themselves jumped into Citizen, saw Josy’s comments, and they soon began chatting with each other in the app.
“Please stay there, we on the way, Please! We are with the cops” she told Josy. Josy shared her contact info and they were soon able to privately connect. “She was so nice. She was playing with my kids,” Josy wrote back.
Because Josy saw the Citizen alert, she was able to relay important information to the family, and ultimately to the police, of her recent whereabouts.
Within minutes, NYPD had located the missing woman nearby.
With a little help from Citizen, Josy shared the right information, to the right people, at the right time.
“I really hope that more people use this app because we can potentially save lives. So many young people are going missing in NYC. I’m thankful for this app,” Josy said.
