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If only the police would make sure to do that before informing us.
That's why our team handles that ourselves.
Mine can’t; we are the coastguard and don’t have any authority to search their home addresses.
Ah. We don't search their home by ourselves. We basically go with or are occupied by a police officer if necessary, but we conduct our own interviews and scent article gathering from the party. That way we know it's good and we cover all our bases. We don't do many searches though. We're mostly helping injured hikers or tourists who made bad decisions.
Ah I see. Like I said, I’m coastguard, so it is quite different. Generally we are informed at length by police that there is a missing person in the vicinity of the river, with little information passed about what the police have done. It often emerges that they haven’t searched the home address and so my lifeboat gets stood down when the casualty turns up safe and well at home.
We mostly end up responding to people threatening self-harm.
The woman changed her clothes, the group guide didn't recognize her, notified the guide of the bus (as far as I know) and thus this whole hilarious event ensued. I think most of my teammates were just happy that they just spent hours training instead of actually looking for someone in distress. I know I'd be relived. (A bit funny I was telling a friend about this story earlier tonight... Guess the universe is somehow connected..) Edit: as funny as it might be, everything there went by the protocol even though the turnout turned to be hilarious. I've been on searches less hilarious and even more morbid where I've wished this was rather the outcome.
There's an old legend that we get told about in training similar to this. It's always sounded like an urban legend to me, but such stories often have a kernel of truth to them.
Story goes that many years ago, a hunter was reported missing somewhere in Northern Ontario. He self-extracted and returned home. He then heard there was search on for a missing hunter, and decided to head back out and join the search as he was very familiar with the area.
Eventually it was realized the missing hunter was part of his own search effort...
This happens often where a person self-rescues or their family finds them and they don’t notify authorities. Often when they have no idea they’re reported missing.
🤦♂️
Rule #1 of SAR, make sure the person you're searching for is indeed missing.