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Two Morris County employees rescue man, 81, during blizzard

Peggy Wright
@PeggyWrightDR

MORRISTOWN - As the snow fell furiously on Saturday, two on-duty Morris County workers noticed an elderly man stumbling around the snow-covered parking lot of the senior citizen housing complex on Ann Street.

Around 11 a.m. Saturday, Sheriff's Office Detective Thomas Reilly and county Buildings and Grounds Superintendent Christopher Walker were at the open doorway of the parking garage of the county Administration and Records building, which gave them a direct view of the housing complex parking lot across the street.

Daniel, 81, of Morristown, displays the heavy rubber boots that made him lose his balance during the Jan. 23, 2016 blizzard. He was rescued from a snowbank by two Morris County employees.

They decided to see if the man was ill or otherwise needed help.  As they approached the parking lot on foot, Reilly said, the man disappeared from sight.

"He was behind some of the plowed snow and had fallen face down in a snowbank and couldn't get up.  He was yelling for someone to help him but with the wind you could hardly hear him," said Reilly, 39, and an Army National Guardsman.

Morris County Sheriff's Office Detective Thomas Reilly, who rescued an 81-year-old man from a snowbank on Jan. 23, 2016, with the help of county Buildings and Grounds Superintendent Christopher Walker.

Reilly said that he and Walker helped the man to his feet. He was wearing a winter coat with the hood over his head and stated he wanted to walk to Rite-Aid -- a distance of about three blocks -- to buy bread.  Reilly said that he and Walker escorted the man inside the complex and told a young woman they encountered there about the resident's attempted excursion.

Morris County Buildings and Grounds Superintendent Christopher Walker

Walker on Monday gave Reilly all the credit for caring enough to check if the resident needed help. And Reilly said it was Walker who went to a store, bought a loaf of bread and dropped it off at the housing complex.

With the help of several other residents of the complex, the Daily Record on Monday found the grateful 81-year-old man -- who wanted only his first name, Daniel, used.

"I feel good! I'm fine!"  he said. He opened a closet door in his apartment and hauled out a large box that he said contained the reason he was stumbling in the snow: a large, heavy pair of rubber snow boots.

"My boots are heavy. That's why I fell," he said. "I want to pay them for the bread," he added. He also demonstrated how his rescuers linked their arms in his and brought him back into the complex foyer.

Asked why he ventured out in the blizzard, Daniel tapped the side of his head and said: "No sense."

Resident Pattie Morton, 71, said many people in the complex are friendly with each other and she is heartened that the two county employees cared enough to check on Daniel's welfare, especially in the middle of the severe storm that dumped more than two feet of snow in Morris County.

"Everyone needs help sometime," she said.

   Staff Writer Peggy Wright: 973-267-1142; pwright@GannettNJ.com.