We had an interesting situation on the weekend, when the Ottawa Police issued a missing man report.

This, in itself, is not that unusual – anyone who has spent some time in a newsroom will know that there are missing persons reports issued by the police every day. In most cases, the person is found within a day.

What was unusual about this one, was that our reporter, Zev Singer got the story – and the missing man, William Dupon.

Driving to an assignment, Zev spotted a man looking forlorn on a bench at a bus stop, wearing the same hat as the man pictured by police.  As he writes in his story, he was tentative about approaching the man, who police had described as having ‘some limitations in his mental functioning’:

… I saw a man at the bus stop on the other side of the street wearing a black leather cowboy hat that looked just like the one in the picture of Dupon. I turned the yellow Citizen car around. …

I walked to the bus stop, and, after a moment of comparing, I showed him my Blackberry and asked: “Is this you?”

For those of you who aren’t lucky enough to know Zev, he is a kind-hearted man and that he drove this missing man to the police station so that he could be reunited with his family isn’t that much of a surprise.

Continue reading How to be a hero – and get the story →