Grandparent scam: London, Ont., senior beats fraudsters not once, but twice
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
A person who went missing during a hike last week in Colorado ignored multiple phone calls from search-and-rescue because they didn’t recognize the number, according to authorities.
In a Facebook post last Thursday, Lake County Search and Rescue (LCSAR) described how they had been called at around 8 p.m. on Oct 18 with a report of a hiker who was overdue to return from a hike on Mount Elbert.
Mount Elbert is the highest summit of the Rocky Mountains, and the highest point in the entire state of Colorado, U.S.
The hiker had departed on their hike from the south trailhead at around 9 a.m. that morning, LCSAR were told, and still had not returned.
Search-and-rescue tried multiple times to reach the hiker on their cell phone, but received no response.
Fearing for the hiker’s safety, LCSAR sent members out into the field at 10 p.m. to search “high probability areas,” but although they searched until 3 a.m., they did not locate the hiker.
At 7 a.m. the next day, LCSAR sent three more people out to search in another location where hikers often lose the trail. But just two-and-a-half hours later, they received the good news — the hiker they were searching for was safe and had returned to their place of lodging. The person who originally reported them as missing was the owner of the establishment where they were staying.
The twist was that the hiker had no idea anyone had been looking for them.
LCSAR stated that the hiker recounted how they lost track of the trail around nightfall on the 18th, and spent the night trying to find their way back to the trail. Once they found the trail again, they were searching for the correct trailhead, and then finally reached their car the morning of the 19th, almost 24 hours after they began the hike.
The reason they didn’t know that anyone was out looking for them was because when they saw an unknown number on their phone, they declined the call automatically, even though they were receiving repeated calls from the same number while lost on a mountain.
LCSAR stressed in their post that when you’re in an emergency, you should probably pick up your phone if you get in a call.
“If you’re overdue according to your itinerary, and you start getting repeated calls from an unknown number, please answer the phone; it may be a SAR team trying to confirm you’re safe!” the post stated.
Although everyone was safe in the end, the story emphasizes how difficult it can be to remember common sense when lost on the side of a mountain.
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
The deaths of four people on a farm near the Saskatchewan village of Neudorf have been confirmed a murder-suicide.
Genetic analysis has shed light on a long-standing mystery surrounding the fates of U.S. President George Washington's younger brother Samuel and his kin.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is officially selling a copy of the Bible themed to Lee Greenwood’s famous song, 'God Bless the USA.' But the concept of a Bible covered in the American flag has raised concern among religious circles.
The Parole Board of Canada has granted full parole to one of three men convicted in the brutal murders of three McDonald's restaurant workers in Cape Breton more than 30 years ago.
Rainfall warnings of up to 90 millimetres and other alerts have been issued for six Canadian provinces, according to the latest forecasts.
Ontario released its annual sunshine list Thursday afternoon, noting that the largest year-over-year increases were in hospitals, municipalities, and post-secondary sectors.
A bus carrying worshippers headed to an Easter festival plunged off a bridge on a mountain pass and burst into flames in South Africa on Thursday, killing at least 45 people, authorities said.
Calgary police have shut down a number of bridges into and out of the downtown core as officers deal with a distraught individual.
B.C. conservation officers recently seized a nine-foot-long Burmese python from a home in Chilliwack.
A New Brunswicker will go to bed Thursday night much richer than he was Wednesday after collecting on a winning lottery ticket he let sit on his bedroom dresser for nearly a year.
The Ontario government is introducing changes to auto-insurance, but some experts say the move is ill-advised.
A Toronto restaurant introduced a surprising new rule that reduced the cost of a meal and raised the salaries of staff.
Newfoundland’s unique version of the Pine Marten has grown out of its threatened designation.
A Toronto man is out $12,000 after falling victim to a deepfake cryptocurrency scam that appeared to involve Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
It started small with a little pop tab collection to simply raise some money for charity and help someone — but it didn’t take long for word to get out that 10-year-old Jace Weber from Mildmay, Ont. was quickly building up a large supply of aluminum pop tabs.
There’s a group of people in Saskatoon that proudly call themselves dumpster divers, and they’re turning the city’s trash into treasure.
Ontario is facing a larger than anticipated deficit but the Doug Ford government still plans to balance its books before the next provincial election.