The woman on the other end of the telephone said she drove her car into a ditch and she needed help.
She could see a Circle K store in the distance, but she didn’t know where she was.
Then the woman’s cell phone disconnected.
That was all the information CCSO 911 emergency dispatchers had to go on when the call came in at 3 a.m. Monday.
Dispatchers immediately took steps to locate the woman, trying to track down her GPS coordinates from her cell phone. But the woman had an older model cell phone, making it difficult to get her coordinates, said Dorothy Canova, the communications supervisor on duty.
After about 10 minutes of trying, dispatchers were able to determine the woman’s cell phone signal was hitting a tower at U.S. 41 East and State Road 29. Two Circle Ks are within that tower’s range: One in Everglades City and the other in Immokalee.
Deputies were immediately dispatched to both store locations.
At 3:28 a.m. deputies arrived at the Circle K at 603 Collier Ave. in Everglades City, where they found 83-year-old Anna Speakman in a dark blue Buick Century that was stuck in a ditch.
A few minutes later CCSO received a BOLO bulletin from the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office about Speakman, who had been reported missing after leaving her home in Punta Gorda sometime Sunday afternoon.
After the BOLO came over, all of the dispatchers cheered, knowing their efforts led to the woman being found, Canova said.
