Yarmouth Coastguard organised their shortest ever search for a missing person last night after discovering the missing man right outside their operations room.

At approximately 2330 Norfolk Police requested the assistance of Yarmouth Coastguard in finding an elderly gentleman who had gone missing from his home in Caister-on-Sea, approximately three and a half miles north of the Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.

Gorleston and Winterton Coastguard Rescue Teams were paged and were on their way to start the search when a member of the operations room staff spotted
someone matching the description of the missing person walking past. They quickly established it was the missing man, advised Norfolk Police of their success and brought him in to the warmth of the operations room for a cup of tea.

Watch Manager Mario Siano said:

“It is a fantastic stroke of luck to have the one person we’re looking for walk right past our noses. The odds of something like that happening must be millions to one, but all that matters is that he’s safe and well.”