A MERSEYSIDE pensioner was tracked down by police after getting lost in this week’s fog – and ending up 50 miles from home.
Sheila Fitzgerald was on her way home to the village of Rainford from Ormskirk on Monday when she took a wrong turn in the fog, The Liverpool Echo reports.
The 82-year-old continued to drive for a further six hours, getting lost in the dense fog that covered Britain earlier this week.
It was 2am that night before Merseyside and Lancashire police tracked Ms Fitzgerald down in Gisburn, Lancashire – after she had been lost for six hours.
Her daughter Clare Fitzgerald was planning on calling around to see her mother and rang ahead before she left at around 6.30pm, but there was no answer.
“I carried on ringing and couldn’t get through. I rang her neighbour, who has a key, and they went round to check but she wasn’t there,” she said.
“I got there at about 8.40pm and realised she was out in her car and there was thick fog so I rang the police.”
Police began to check road cameras for any sign of Ms Fitzgerald’s car – and spotted her licence plate driving on the M65 near Blackburn at around 10.30pm.
After a police chase to reach her across the country, two officers eventually pulled Ms Fitzgerald over in the village of Gisburn in Lancashire.
“Apparently she joked with them and asked ‘am I a missing person?’ and they had to tell her she actually was,” her daughter said.
“She only thought she had been driving about 20 minutes. She was just finding her way home.”
But her six-hour adventure had taken her 50 miles from her home.
“I was so worried, especially because the fog was terrible. The officers were really patient, really kind and were absolutely amazing all the way through,” Clare Fitzgerald said.
“I can’t thank them enough.”
See More: Featured, Fog, Merseyside
