A combined search party, assisted by a sniffer dog, rescued a missing 72-year-old man surnamed Sau, from a nullah in Sha Tau Kok on a second attempt last month.

The man's wife asked for police assistance about 12:40am on April 23 after she failed to locate her husband who went missing about 10pm earlier on the second day after moving into their house in Tai Tong Wu Village in Sha Tau Kok.

After being alerted by RCCC NT, Sha Tau Kok Division (STKDIV) officers, led by Senior Inspector Mohammad Khan, conducted an initial search for about 30 minutes but to no avail.

Fear for the safety of Mr Sau mounted because he was suffering from senile dementia, diabetes, poor eyesight and problems with his feet. SIP Khan, therefore, sought assistance from NTN Emergency Unit and the Police Dog Unit (PDU) for conducting a wider search. A second search party, along with police dog Coby, started another search about 3:20am.

During an interview with OffBeat, SIP Khan said the officers were worried about Mr Sau's safety because of his poor health and the countryside environment.

"Mr Sau had left his house by the rear door which leads to a large area of wasteland. Therefore the longer we took to find him, the more dangerous situation he would be in. So we lost no time in the second search. We hoped that with the help of Coby and the PDU officers, we would have a better chance of finding him," he added.

Assistance by Coby

Apparently, Coby did not let anybody down. She eventually led the search party to a spot near a construction site approximately 400 metres from Mr Sau's house around 4:55am - one and a half hour after the search began. The search party using search lights eventually found Mr Sau sitting inside a nullah with water almost up to his neck. After being rescued, he was none the worse, except for some bruises on the legs.

"If the Police have not come on time, I could have been dead," Mr Sau told OffBeat.

When asked how he had ended up in the nullah, he said he took a walk to cool down after having a small quarrel with his wife, but lost his way in an unfamiliar environment.

"I kept walking and walking and couldn't remember how I found my way into the nullah. I was too tired to get out of it. I don't know exactly how long I've been there but I guess it was more than two hours. The water was so cold that my trembling even caused some ripples," recalled Mr Sau.

Sergeant Chim Ying-cheong and dog handler, Senior Police Constable Ip Kwok-wing, both from PDU, said that in the first place, they were not optimistic of finding Mr Sau.

"This was because it had been quite a long time since he went missing. We feared the smell he had left behind was not strong enough for Coby to find him. Therefore I took out his T-shirt and a slipper for Coby to refresh her memory of Mr Sau's smell. Eventually the one-and-a-half-year-old dog did a great job," explained SGT Chim.

"I'm so proud of Coby. She has a sharp sense of smell and is very intelligent. It was just four months after she had finished training, but she already got three compliments for her performances," said Coby's handler, SPC Ip.

Grateful to officers

Mrs Sau is very grateful to the officers for saving her husband.

"Apart from saying 'thank you', I can't find other words to express my gratefulness. When they found my husband, they were as happy as I. I could tell from their faces they were happy not because they could sign off but because they felt like having found their own family member.

"I'm so touched by their perseverance and hard work. They never gave up searching although I almost gave up hope," she said.

The incident has changed Mrs Sau's impression of the police. She explained: "This is not because the police have saved my husband, but because they were so well organised, enthusiastic and very systematic in carrying out the search operation."