I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere appreciation for the Brookfield Police Department. On Monday, April 28, my wife had a stroke on her way to a dental appointment in downtown Chicago.
She fell three times and became very confused and disoriented. When she did not show up for her appointment, I came home from work and found that she had, indeed, left the house. I called the Brookfield police, and they worked through the night trying to locate her.
At around midnight, they found an image of her boarding the BNSF train shortly after 11 a.m. that morning, taken from a surveillance camera at the Brookfield train station. By tracking the signal from her cellphone, they were finally able to locate her on the morning of April 29.
Two Brookfield detectives went to downtown Chicago and with two Chicago police officers found my wife on Franklin Street beneath the I-290 overpass. She was in the company of a homeless man who, in his own way, had protected her throughout the night.
Other than some bruising from her three falls, she was unharmed. Nothing was taken from her purse or briefcase. She had survived a long night, not understanding what had happened to her, and attempting to get back onto her feet so that she could find her way back to Union Station.
One of the happiest moments of my life occurred when Officer Jelinek of the Brookfield police called me and said, “We found your wife!”
I am eternally grateful for the persistence and vigilance of the officers and detectives of the Brookfield Police Department.
Gary Whitney
Brookfield
