Missing Man, 77, Found After 3 Weeks

During a stroll around the block that turned into a three-week hike, a 77-year-old man who became lost survived with help from strangers until he was found Friday, safe and healthy.

Ralph Sortillion Esperanza had not been seen since Sept. 28, when he went for an early morning walk in his granddaughter’s West Main Street neighborhood. He had moved from Arizona only the day before.

A Seal Beach police officer saw him sleeping on a bench Wednesday at the Rossmoor Shopping Center, but Esperanza was clean-shaven, lucid and said nothing about being lost, Seal Beach Police Sgt. Rick Ransdell said.

Then the officer saw the missing-persons flier released Thursday by Tustin police.

“The officer goes, ‘Oops. Hey, I know that guy,’ ” and found Esperanza again at the shopping center, Ransdell said. “He didn’t seem to be any the worse for wear for the time he was missing.”

“I guess he had some good luck while he was out there,” said his granddaughter, Monica Garcia. “Someone was looking over him.”

He told his family that passersby gave him money, unsolicited, for food, that he slept under trees, and that someone gave him a change of clothes and shoes, she said.

But he changed the subject when they asked why he didn’t tell anyone he was lost.

“It’s just so unbelievable how far he walked,” Garcia said Friday night, while Esperanza was napping. “He said he was scared and he was cold.

“He’s really happy to see us,” she said. “Hopefully it will never, ever happen again.”