HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Early Monday morning, Hillsborough County deputies were searching for a man who attempted to rob a gas station.
"A guy came in with a gun and tried to hold it up for some money," Marco Villareal, public information officer for the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, said. "The clerks realized the gun the suspect had was plastic. So they chased him out of the store and he took off running."
Then, a foot chase began. In a video shared by the HCSO Aviation Unit, deputies are heard speaking to one another.
"You guys have the target identified," one deputy asked. "Yes, we have the target identified as well," another replied.
Hillsborough deputies, a K-9 unit and an aviation unit were trying to track down their suspect.
"It's five in the morning," Villareal said. "It's pitch black dark. And all we know, thanks to the aviation unit, they can see somebody hiding in this wooded area."
"It could be a real big stretch but we had that signal eight that was lost," a deputy said into his radio. "It was like an Arabic male with a black shirt, black hat and a beard."
Signal eight is a code for missing people. Deputies believed they may have found someone who recently went missing in Hillsborough County.
"Hey, it very closely matches that description," a deputy responded. "Black guy, black top, tan pants. I'm pretty sure this is going to be him."
Then, the law enforcement officials confirm their suspicions.
"They finally get close to him and realize, it's not the suspect, but a 75-year-old man that had gone missing the day before," Villareal said.
HCSO said the man had Alzheimer's. He went missing near the University of South Florida on Sunday.
"He was up to his chest in water," Villareal explained. "If we had not shown up, had our Aviation Unit not found that individual in that wooded swampy area, things could have turned out a lot worse."
Deputies took the man to the hospital for medical attention, where he was reunited with his family.
HCSO says they are still looking for the gas station robbery suspect. Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriff's office.