Troopers Helps Elderly Man Left By His Family at Upstate Rest Stop

State Police in New York likened the situation they encountered on Monday to the movie Home Alone where Kevin's family accidentally left him behind during the chaos of trying to leave for a family trip to Paris.

But this wasn't Hollywood, and anything but scripted - but it does have a happy ending.

According to New York State Police, an elderly man was left stranded, alone at a Thruway Rest Stop after his family lost track of him and drove away on Monday afternoon in Upstate New York.

How did a family leave this elderly man behind at an Upstate New York Rest Area? And how did they NOT know three hours later that he was still not in the car?

According to a Facebook post, we learned that on Monday, "Trooper TJ Conklin (SP Gateway) was called to check on the welfare of an elderly man at the Whitney Point Rest Area off Interstate 81" which is about 2 1/2 hours southwest of Albany, north of Binghampton.

After speaking with the man, Trooper Conklin learned that when the elderly man got out of the vehicle to stretch his legs, the family must have taken off.  Getting in touch with the family wasn't easy, the elderly man had no phone, no wallet, but Trooper Conklin got to work.

Finally, according to the State Police Facebook, "the trooper got an answer from a family member in another state, who was able to make contact with the gentleman’s family members in the car. They had just realized that he wasn’t sleeping in the backseat where he had left his jacket over some baggage. The man’s family had already traveled three hours away!"

The work for Trooper Conklin wasn't quite done - he stayed with the unnamed gentleman until he was reunited with his family at a diner in Roscoe, NY.

It goes without saying how much we appreciate the work done by our Troopers and all of the first responders out there to assist us -  thank you all - and stay safe!