Video: Arkansas gas station clerks help missing Georgia man

PROCTOR, Ark. — Clerks at a gas station in Crittenden County went out of their way to help a customer who turned out to be a man reported missing from Northern Georgia a week ago.

The manager of Jordan’s Kwik Stop on Highway 70 in Proctor, Arkansas, said the 74-year-old was parked outside the business in his truck when they showed up for work early Tuesday morning.

Jeannette Selvy said he was there most of the day, and at one point, they offered to give him something to eat.

“He had gotten a beef jerky and a soda, and his card said insufficient funds. He swiped another card. Insufficient funds. So the cashier, Jennifer, asked him if he was hungry. He said no. So he came back out to his truck. He was out here for a while. A couple of hours went by,” said Selvy.

Latoya Pugh, who was also working at the store, said the man seemed confused and told her his truck had broken down and he needed a tow truck. Pugh said she couldn’t get in touch with a tow truck company, and an hour later, the man gave her a piece of paper with a number on it and told her to call his niece.

“When I called his niece, she told me, ‘ I’m glad he’s there with y’all. And I said, What’s going on? And she said that he has dementia, really bad. I said, Wow. I said, Where are y’all from? She said, Georgia, and that’s when I realized something was wrong with him,” said Pugh.

Jordan’s workers also called the Crittenden County Sheriff’s Office and took care of the man until deputies arrived. They provided a chair for him to sit on, and surveillance video shows a clerk covering him with jackets to keep him warm.

“So, I just found some that was back there and just wrapped it around because he was really tired and frustrated and tired for real,” said Robbie Logan. “He was just mainly ready to go and tired.”

The Crittenden County Sheriff’s Office said a Silver Alert had been issued for the man reported missing from Ringgold, Georgia, which is more than five hours away.

Sheriff Mike Allen said the man is diabetic and had been without his medicine for days. In a Facebook post, the sheriff commended Jordan’s employees for their efforts to reunite the man with his family.

“We’ve had a lot of people that you know shared it, and people that commented on that, you know, the humanity of the whole situation with the clerks,” said Sheriff Allen.

Sheriff Allen said the man was taken to Baptist Hospital, where he was treated, and he was waiting for his family to come and get him from Georgia.