DUNGUN: In a hasty bid to avoid growing traffic congestion during the ‘balik bandar’ rush following the Hari Raya Aidilfitri break, a son inadvertently left his elderly mother behind at the Bukit Besi R&R here, on Saturday.
The man, in his 40s, his wife and his 73-year-old mother were on their way back to Kuala Lumpur from Bukit Payong in Kuala Terengganu, when the son stopped at the Bukit Besi R&R for his wife to answer the call of nature at about 8am.
As the man and his mother remained in the car, the man dozed off. It was then that his mother quietly got down to use the facilities as well.
As soon as his wife returned from her toilet break, the man awoke and immediately resumed his long drive home, not realising that his mother was still at the R&R.
Meanwhile, upon returning from the restroom, the senior citizen was shocked to find that her son’s car was missing.
The septuagenarian immediately sought help from members of the public, who offered to send her to the R&R’s express bus stop.
But the senior citizen was reluctant to leave, and remained at the R&R.
After one and a half hours, two Road Transport Department staff members who were patrolling the R&R stumbled on the woman, and after listening to her plight, sent her to the Bukit Besi police station.
Meanwhile, her son and his wife only realised that the woman was missing when they stopped for a lunch break at the Gambang R&R, near Kuantan, which is 196km from the Bukit Besi R&R.
Dungun police chief Superintendent Baharudin Abdullah said that the senior citizen informed them that she has a daughter who is a teacher at a school in Bukit Payong.
Based on the information provided, police contacted the school and managed to trace the woman’s daughter.
“We informed the daughter about what transpired, and a grandson eventually showed up to pick up the senior citizen at about 12.30pm.
“The senior citizen was taken back to her daughter’s home in Bukit Payong; as her son and wife made a U-turn to fetch her,” said Baharudin.