Two security guards from LeFrak City in Corona proved that the call of duty reaches beyond officers with a gun and badge.
Raymond Sosa and St. Aubyn Duncan received awards of appreciation from the 104th Precinct during Tuesday’s 104th Precinct Community Council meeting in Ridgewood for their assistance in finding a person who had been missing for more than a week late last year.
At the beginning of last December, the 104th Precinct received a report of a missing man who came to the United States from another county to visit family members.
“Usually on a missing persons case, most of the time we solve it in a day or two. Sometimes they’re runaways, sometimes they maybe locate to another state,” said Captain Mark Wachter, the precinct’s commanding officer. “But this was a unique case where we really didn’t know where this person went.”
The 104th Precinct distributed wanted missing person posters of the man citywide, including in locations such as office buildings and subway stations.
The case went on for eight days before Sosa and Duncan came across the missing man.
Sosa was going to work and saw the precinct’s wanted missing person flyers at the Woodhaven Boulevard train station, Wachter said. While working, Sosa noticed the missing man walking around in a confused state and ran back to the train station to grab the poster to confirm it was the missing man, while Duncan engaged in conversation with him.
Upon confirmation that it was indeed the same man from the poster, Sosa altered the police department. The man was then transported to the hospital for evaluation and was reunited with his family.
“We want to say thank you and we want to give an award of recognition to these two security guards who basically saw something, remembered it, took action and reunited a missing person from another country with their family,” Wachter said. “We don’t know where this person could have wound up in another day or two.”
Duncan was a member of the New York State National Guard, stationed in Fort Hamilton. He is an Army masonry specialist, licensed security guard and presently works at DEP as a security guard.
Sosa is a resident of the Bronx; he currently works at DEP as a security guard and is the assistant coach of a high school basketball team.
