Dog Leads Off-Duty Cop to Missing Elderly Man in Ocean Co. Woods

The dog of a missing lower Ocean Township man led an off-duty officer to find the victim hours after he had crashed his vehicle in the woods.

The search for the missing 78-year-old Fred Rapp had gone on nine hours last Friday and Saturday when an off-duty Manchester officer found him.

The missing man's daughter called police around 8 p.m. after not seeing him since 4:30 p.m.

When officers were unable to find the missing man or his car, they made several unsuccessful attempts to call his cellphone.

Finally, at 5:45 a.m. the next day, Rapp answered his phone and told police he had crashed his car in the woods and didn't know where he was.

He then revealed he was with an off-duty officer who had been hunting in the area at the time. Manchester Sgt. Charles Brooks was able to provide enough information over the phone to get the Rapp to safety.

It turns out when Sgt. Brooks was hunting, he saw the man's dog, Petie, alone on a trail. He assumed the dog had wandered away from its owner and decided to follow the dog's paw prints to see if he could reunite the dog and its owner.

After following the paw prints for several hundred yards, he discovered the missing man.

Manchester Police Chief Lisa Parker summed up the successful end to the search for missing man and his dog...

“This situation highlights the fact that a police officer is a police officer 24/7. We are truly fortunate that Sgt. Brooks was in the right place at the right time because without his help there is no telling how this story would have ended”.