Missing El Toro Men Are Safely Back Home

Two mentally retarded men who disappeared 18 days ago when they left their El Toro homes to go to a shopping mall were safe at home Wednesday after spending about two harrowing weeks homeless on the streets of Long Beach and downtown Los Angeles.

Rick Neve, 22, who has the mental age of 14, was rescued by his family early Monday morning. He had been separated Sunday from his friend Rory Nichols, 35, who has the mental age of 11. Nichols was found Wednesday night.

“He’s very thankful to be home with us,” said Rick Neve’s mother, Karol. “When you’re on the streets for a period of time, you forget all the good memories of home, your bedroom, the refrigerator which you can go to 50 times a day. All you think about is the moment-by-moment survival.”

The two friends took the bus early March 4 to the Mission Viejo Mall. Because visiting shopping centers was one of their favorite pastimes, they proceeded to South Coast Plaza and later to the Westminster Mall, whiling away the time with jokes and sightseeing.

Then Neve realized that he was late for dinner and miles away from El Toro.

“I was late that night, so I didn’t even bother to go home,” Neve said. “I thought I was going to be in a lot of trouble being late, so I didn’t go back home and face it. I just kept on going.”

So, with $40 between them, Neve and Nichols decided to strike out on their own, according to an account of the adventure provided by Neve and family members on Wednesday.

From Westminster, the two men rode by bus to Santa Ana and then Long Beach. The two stayed at a mission, where they ate and slept. Meanwhile, they looked for jobs.

Frustrated after a week of seeking work, the pair rode the bus to downtown Los Angeles on March 10 to find jobs there.

For four days, they wandered the crowded, grimy streets of Skid Row, eating at local missions. At night, they slept on the grass in Pershing Square near the Biltmore Hotel. When they shivered awake from the cold, they huddled around trash cans in which groups of homeless had built fires of rubbish and wood.

Frightened by the mean streets of downtown Los Angeles, the two men returned to Long Beach, where they talked to the chaplain who ran the mission where they had stayed before. He told them that they didn’t belong on the streets and that they should go home.

“But we didn’t apparently listen,” Neve said. “We just took off for L.A.,” again.

Then on Sunday morning, they lost each other. Neve searched all day for Nichols. When night came, he became scared that he would not be able to fend off muggers by himself. So he called Nichols’ brother-in-law in Santa Barbara.

“I didn’t even think of calling home,” he said.

His friend’s brother-in-law called Karol and Calvin Neve. They drove to downtown Los Angeles around midnight and cruised the dark streets, peering from their car at the scores of wandering homeless people.

Then they passed someone who walked like their son. Rick Neve’s jacket was multicolored, but this man wore a solid dark-blue one. Rick Neve didn’t leave home with a baseball cap, but this man wore one. And this man was covered with soot and dirt.

“I said, ‘There he is,’ ” Calvin Neve said. But his wife said no, it wasn’t him. They stopped and backed up. They didn’t need to recognize Rick because Rick recognized them. He saw the car, walked quickly over and got in the back seat.

“I said, ‘Hi, Rick. Are you ready to go home?’ ” his father said. “He took a deep breath and said, ‘Yes.’ ”

They spent an hour, tooling up and down the downtown streets, looking in vain for Nichols, who was wearing Rick’s red-and-tan jacket.

Nichols was found Wednesday night after he called his boarding house, the Pickering Independent Living home in El Toro, from Union Station in Los Angeles.

“He was extremely scared and tired,” said Susan Bunker, who runs the home. “The first thing he said was: ‘I’m dirty. I’m dirty.’ The first thing I wanted to do was cry. It’s been a very long three weeks.”