VANCOUVER -- A 26-year-old West Vancouver man made it home safely Saturday after his disappearance prompted a significant search and rescue effort Friday night.
Peter Haigh, a search manager for North Shore Rescue, told CTV News Vancouver the man left his home with his dog around 12:30 p.m. Friday, but didn't return.
The search and rescue group was called to look for the missing man, focusing on a ping police had detected from his cellphone, Haigh said.
Roughly a dozen searchers focused on a 100-metre radius of forest in West Vancouver that didn't intersect with any major hiking routes, according to Haigh.
"Eventually, we did find the phone, but it had been dropped," he said. "We found his phone and that was all. We couldn't find him."
The man's dog returned home around 10 p.m., prompting additional concern among search crews, Haigh said.
Volunteers called off the search around 3 a.m., but returned to the area Saturday morning to continue searching in daylight with the help of crews from Lions Bay and Coquitlam search and rescue groups.
Haigh said crews soon heard from a group of hikers that they had spotted someone who matched the missing man's description. They described him as having a bloody nose and travelling in the direction of the missing man's home.
About 45 minutes later, searchers got word that the missing man had returned home.
"We do not have a full story as to where he came off the rails or what happened," Haigh said, describing the incident as "a bit of a weird one."
He said the missing man was taken to hospital for treatment Saturday, and that West Vancouver police would be following up with the man about what happened to him overnight.
"I don't think he was in our immediate area, and that was the area where his phone was dropped, so it raises quite a few questions for us," Haigh said. "We would like to know (what happened), because obviously if we can do a better job tracking down somebody in the night, it saves them being out overnight."
