Extensive police resources were deployed last weekend in Geneseo in a search and rescue effort which turned out to have been unnecessary.

Twenty-three year old Christopher Hughes from Connecticut spent last weekend visiting a friend in Geneseo. He had been a student at the University of Buffalo, but had never attended SUNY Geneseo and was unfamiliar with the village.

The friend resided at 68 Court Street, but the pair spent most of Friday evening, Dec. 11, out drinking, ending up at Hughes’ friend’s girlfriends’ place at Building 6, Apartment 2 in the Meadows Apartments complex off Hillside Drive.

Sometime around 5 a.m. Hughes stumbled out of the apartment, shoeless, on a cold and dark ten degree morning, looking for his car and his friend’s house. Walking down Hillside Drive, in an unfamiliar area, he lost his sense of direction and made a left turn on Court Street, when he should have went right.

Hughes spotted what he thought was his friend’s house — it was actually 50 Court Street — walked in, and fell asleep on the couch.

Waking up at 6 a.m., Hughes’ friend realized Hughes was at neither the Meadows apartment or the 68 Court Street apartment, although his car was still parked out on the street.

The then-frantic friend called the police, triggering what would be a four hour search. Because of the low temperature and Hughes’ intoxicated state, there was fear for his safety and life.

Police and Sheriff’s personnel combed through the wooded area surrounding the Meadows. A canine enlisted in the search was confused by the great number of human scents.

AT&T was contacted. The cellular provider attempted to locate Hughes via his cell phone GPS feature, which unfortunately was turned off.

At this point Geneseo Police Chief Eric Osganian enlisted the assistance of the New York State Police Aviation unit out of Batavia, which supplied a helicopter conducting an aerial search of the area.

Meanwhile, police and Sheriff’s searchers resorted to knocking on doors in the Hillside Drive neighborhood. Chief Osganian noted that he personally checked about 20 houses and apartments.

“Everybody was involved,” Osganian said.

Sometime about 10 a.m. Hughes awoke from his slumber at 50 Court Street. Checking his cell phone messages, it soon dawned on Hughes that he was at that very moment the subject of an all-out search effort — and that he had spent the night in the wrong apartment.

Hughes called his friend to let him know he was all right. Then, taking a pair of shoes he found in the foyer, Hughes walked outside and strolled down Court Street, and was soon united with his relieved friend and a search party of companions.

See complete story in our Dec. 24 print edition.

Tagged as: Geneseo Police