Elderly Bruce County man recovering after spending 18 hours in a swamp

A Bruce County man is warm and dry on Wednesday after police rescued him out of the Saratoga Swamp near Goderich, Ont.

Just after 11 p.m. on Tuesday, police say 9-1-1 dispatchers received a call from a male voice that only said the word “lost.”

When dispatchers tried to call back, there was no answer so officers were able to get an emergency release of the phone subscriber information which helped get a possible location of where the call came from.

Officers immediately began searching for the man and shortly after 12:30 a.m., found the caller's vehicle unoccupied at the entrance to the Saratoga Swamp off of Hawkins Road, just north of Goderich.

Shortly after 3:00 a.m. officers were able to establish voice contact with the lost man but because of the difficult swampy terrain it wasn't until after 4:30 a.m. before the man was located by police sitting on a log, well-under dressed and under-prepared for a long night in the bush.

The 70-year-old with mobility issues was brought out of the swamp around 6:15 a.m. Wednesday, very cold, wet and sore, according to police.

It turns out, the man had ventured into the trails around noon looking for deer antlers and later in the day he became turned around and got off the trail and could not find his way out of the swamp.

Police are using this opportunity to encourage the public to install the what3words app. If a caller has the app downloaded on their mobile device, it works without internet or data, so you can provide emergency responders your unique location code even in remote areas or locations with cellular signals too weak for cellular data to work.