ERIC, 80, said he loves to drive. And drive, and drive. Even if it is in the wrong direction, through a different state.
He
was missing for nine hours after he left his friend's house in Yass at
7.15am attempting to drive home to Pambula on the NSW south-East coast.
But the man, named only as 'Eric', took a wrong turn and kept driving unconcerned about his unfamiliar surroundings.
He
travelled nearly 600km before stopping at the Avalon BP service station
on the Princess Hwy to ask for help from two police officers.
Constable
Tom Windlow and Leading Senior Constable Clayton Smith, from the
Traffic Drug and Alcohol section, had stopped at the service station
about 3.45pm after an operation in Corio.
'I was stretching
my legs, waiting for Tom to come back to the car when this little old
man came up to me saying he was lost," Sen-Constable Smith said.
"He handed me his mobile and asked if I could speak to his wife."
Eric's wife told the officers her husband, who police said suffers slight dementia, had been missing for nearly nine hours.
"Believe me, we never expected for her to say he had driven from Yass," Sen-Constable Smith said
Eric was then taken to Sunshine police station where he was reunited with family friends who had driven down from Mt Eliza.
Sen-Constable
Smith and Constable Windlow said the accidental adventurer had been
very grateful for their help and told them many stories as they waited
for his friends to arrive.
"When we asked him why he hadn't stopped earlier he replied, "I just like to drive," Sen-Constable Smith said.
Eric and his wife were reunited late yesterday afternoon.