AN elderly man found wandering outside a pub in Copford was reported missing 70 miles from home.

Lydia Tucker had been visiting friends in Stanway and the group ended up at The Swan Inn for a catch up.

Lydia, 19, saw an elderly man wandering near a car outside the pub in London Road and realised something was not right.

She spoke to someone inside the pub on Thursday night who advised she called the police.

Two officers came to the pub to speak to the man in his 80s and after searching the man’s car registration it transpired he had gone missing from Hertfordshire a few hours before.

Lydia, who works in a bank, said the man had struck up a conversation with her and her friends.

She said: “We were out the back of the pub and he asked us if we were cold, we told him we were all fine.

“He said he had been cold as he had been sleeping in his car.

“I wondered why as he looked clean and shaven. I wanted to ask him more as I knew something wasn’t right.

“He said he had been sleeping in his car as he couldn’t get back to Cornwall. It seemed he may have had dementia as he was talking about places that are hours away.

“He seemed really vulnerable, I was genuinely concerned for him.”

She raised her concerns with the bar manager who advised her to call 101.

Lydia said: “The police were out within the hour and when they arrived the man wrote down a full address in Hertfordshire.

“I asked if everything was alright and police said he was a missing man from Hertfordshire and I thought, ‘crikey’.

“I felt horrible about bringing the police but I would have felt worse if I had just gone home.

“If that was my grandad I would want someone to do the same thing.”

Lydia said she has had experience speaking to customers showing signs of dementia and was able to spot the man’s symptoms.

Lydia’s dad, Mick, said he was proud of his daughter for using her instincts.

A spokesman for Hertfordshire Constabulary said: “An 84-year-old man from Dacorum in Hertfordshire went missing on Thursday just before 7.20pm.

“He was found at 10.48pm in a confused state at The Swan Pub.

“Police in Colchester attended and he was taken to a relative’s home.”

Essex Police confirmed officers attended and took the man to a place of safety.