A 91-year-old woman has been found safe after an alert triggered a police welfare check — turns out she was just trying to beat her record in a video game.
The woman from Westlake, Ohio, is part of the city’s “Are You Okay?” program, which allows vulnerable residents to opt for daily calls to check in on them.
When the woman didn’t answer her daily call on April 9, her community started to worry.
“Everyone’s a little bit alarmed that she’s missing these contacts,” Westlake Police Captain Jerry Vogel said in an interview with local outlet WEWS.
When dispatchers and the woman’s daughter tried to follow up and got no answer, the police came to her home to check on her.
The woman didn’t answer the door, prompting the cops to use a code to get inside her garage. Body camera video obtained by WEWS showed the woman’s car inside the garage. The footage cut out once the officers went inside her home to protect the woman’s identity.
Police found the woman in her bedroom playing video games, according to audio obtained by the outlet.
“We’re with her now. She’s playing video games in her bedroom,” one officer can be heard telling dispatch.
The woman was playing a “bubble pop” video game, local outlet WOIO reported. These types of games have players match colored bubbles that pop when grouped. The goal is usually to clear all the bubbles.
A 2024 study from the Texas A&M University School of Public Health found that engaging in hobbies such as games and puzzles is linked to slower cognitive decline in the elderly.
The Westlake woman had missed her welfare calls because she was trying to beat her record in the video game, police told WEWS.
“Everyone got a good laugh out of it,” Vogel said, adding, “It’s a great reminder that Westlake residents have that service for them and they can sign up any time they want.”
The alert program led police in January to an elderly woman who had fallen inside her living room and couldn’t get back up, authorities told WEWS at the time. The woman was not injured, according to the cops.
Alert systems can serve as a lifeline for the elderly and other vulnerable adults.
A Forbes Health survey found that 86 percent of users or caregivers said a medical alert system had saved them or the adult they care for from an incident, the publication reported last month.
