Recognizing a face in the crowd

A leisurely bicycle ride through Coney Island on his day off turned into much more as 4th Precinct police officer Alex Annastasiades became a hero to a Queens family, when on June 2, he found a man who was reported missing three days before.

Annastasiades recognized the face of Jeewan Mangra, 86, on a missing poster as the man he had brought to St. John’s Episcopal Hospital in Far Rockaway several days prior. Annastasiades had seen Mangra sitting near the Atlantic Beach Bridge. He claimed he didn’t remember his him and said he had no wife or children.

After Annastasiades contacted the Coney Island police precinct, the 4th Precinct in Hewlett and St. John’s emergency department, Mangra was identified and his family was contacted. “Thank you so much for bringing back my husband,” Indrowati Mangra, cried as she was reunited with her spouse.

Mangra went missing on May 30 and his frantic family notified the police and began a search party that included hanging missing posters throughout the city.

According to the couple’s oldest son, Dharmapaul Mangra, Mangra went for a walk everyday, but this was the first time he got lost. The family had no idea how he got to Atlantic Beach from Hollis, Queens, on his own.

Contrary to his recollection the day Annastasiades saw him, Mangra has 10 children, 34 grandchildren and 28 great-grandchildren.

In addition to the chance encounter with Annastasiades, Vicki Backus, director, of the hospital’s emergency department credited her staff for reacting quickly to the situation. “It’s not everyday we have such a happy ending,” she said.