New Mexico postal worker helps missing Arizona man get home

ANIMAS, N.M. — In a small, southwestern New Mexico town of 124 people, everyone knows everyone, including postal worker Mary McCarty.

So back in September, when Mary saw a man wandering with his dog in the post office parking lot, she knew he wasn’t a familiar face.

“I work at the post office and, so, I know when anybody new moves in,” Mary said, “and I certainly didn’t recognize him or the name or anything.”

The man was Glenn French, from Arizona. Glenn was walking and talking. Still, Mary couldn’t help but ask, “Are you okay? Do you need help?”

Glenn did.

He said he ran out of gas while driving from New York and that he and his dog had been walking all night through the desert.

However, there was no car in sight and Glenn didn’t have a cell phone. He also told Mary he wanted to call his wife but he couldn’t remember his wife’s name.

“The more I got to talking to him, I could tell something wasn’t right,” Mary said. “In his reality, we were in New York.”

Mary offered Glenn and his dog some water, then called 911 to hopefully get him some help.

Little did she know, in Sierra Vista, Arizona, the 68-year-old husband and father was a missing man.

“My father was missing for about 24 hours total,” said Christy Zoumis, Glenn’s daughter.

Glenn’s disappearance was concerning, especially because the keys to the family Jeep were gone and he wasn’t cleared to drive. This was due to a motorcycle accident that left him with severe memory loss.

“Once we were about 14 hours into the search, I definitely came to the likely conclusion that we were not going to find him because there are so many places in the desert where someone can go missing,” Christy said.

Back at the post office in Animas, Mary waited with Glenn until police officers arrived. Upon arrival, officers confirmed he was over 100 miles away from home.

Shortly after, his family got a call.

“It was one of the best moments of my life because we had, through the period in which he was missing, relived the pain and agony of thinking that we will not see him again, much like we did when he had his motorcycle accident,” Christy said.

The family was soon all back together again, all because of the kindness, patience and compassion of Mary McCarty.

Still, though, Mary says she’s no hero.

“I am not anything special, I just came to work early,” she said. “I would like to think that I just did what anybody would do.”

“I believe that, through prayer, my father was lead to her,” Christy said.

The Jeep was recovered and Glenn is now doing well. Mary says that, through this experience, she found some lifelong friends.

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