GERMANTOWN, Md. — A Ride On bus driver is being hailed a hero for stepping in to help a missing woman in distress. The woman has fortunately been reunited with her family and is doing ok.
WUSA9 spoke exclusively to both the bus driver and dispatcher that worked together to find the woman with Alzheimer’s. Staff at Ride On said they get calls for missing people often, but it doesn’t always end with them finding the person.
“They’ll walk us through where that person was last seen, and a physical description of what they’re wearing,” Ride On Transit Communications Leader, Jason Klein said. “They’ll let us know if the person has Alzheimer’s if they have autism, or if they have dementia.”
A little after 7 p.m. on Friday night, a report of a missing woman in Montgomery County was made and Ride On transit’s dispatch was notified.
“In this case it was a call for a critically missing older lady who had Alzheimer’s,” Klein said.
Once dispatch received the report of the missing woman, they sent out a message to operators in the area.
“And we had an operator who was really on his toes,” Klein said.
The bus operator who heard the message and quickly noticed something was Antonio Lucas.
“I was discussing with a passenger that the woman might need help and the woman actually walked into the street and was knocking on car doors and that’s when the bolo came across,” bus operator and trainer, Antonio Lucas said.
Lucas said the woman was on his express route going from Shady Grove to Germantown, and he knew he had to step in to help.
“I went out and got her to come with me,” Lucas said.
Once they were together, it was around Lucas’ lunch break so he took her to get some Chick-fil-A.
“I asked her was she hungry and she said yes,” Lucas said. “So I figured that would be a safe place for her to sit down and get out the cold.”
She was later reunited with her family.
"I feel good about it, and I believe when you're blessing the people, blessings come your way as well,” Lucas said.
Lucas hopes his act of kindness will encourage others to give a helping hand when needed.
"I just hope that this will inspire people to want to help the next person, because I believe change that if we want to see change in the world, it starts within,” Lucas said. Adding, "So if each person could live their life like that then the world would be a better place."
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