Overstayers caught during hunt for patient

Police searching for a missing Alzheimer's patient yesterday inadvertently found 11 Indonesian overstayers working in a Blenheim vineyard.

Constable Dan Mattison said the 11 men scattered and ran away as soon as they saw the police squad, who were searching for the 65-year-old man missing from a local retirement village.

Police arrested the men, who had been living in the area since jumping ship from the fishing vessel Dong Won 522 in October 2005, Mr Mattison said.

They would be deported under the Immigration Act, he said.

The Alzheimer's sufferer was found safe and well thanks to the quick thinking of a a police officer working for the local search and rescue team.

The officer recalled that when disoriented, Alzheimer's sufferers typically travel in a straight line.

The man was found about two hours after reported missing on the Wairau River bank, having travelled in a straight line from the point he was last seen.

- NZPA