Michael LefkovitsOn Tuesday, a follower of The Local East Village’s Twitter page tweeted about how some East Villagers had helped a missing man back to his home. Seeing a counterpoint to the tragic death of Eason Alonzio, we asked her to tell us the whole story here.
On Tuesday night, my husband Ben and I settled in at Standings. The low-key sports bar has become the default home for one of our “integrate into America” projects: acquiring a love of baseball, or at the very least starting to work out what all the fuss is about. It’s not the most straightforward endeavor for a couple of Aussies raised to believe cricket is the best game on Earth. Becoming Mets fans has helped, though; we are culturally wired to support the underdog, and they fulfill the role with aplomb.
It was around 10:30 p.m. when we finished watching the Mets throw away their 8th-inning lead against the Marlins. Defeated and more than ready to be home, we crossed Second Avenue over to St. Marks, Ben pushing his bike ahead of me. In my peripheral vision I caught only a fleeting glimpse of what seemed to be a hunched figure leaning up against a tree trunk; it wasn’t until I had gone several feet further that the image even registered.
“Wait up,” I said to Ben, handing him my backpack as I returned to investigate.
An elderly man, perhaps 80 years old, was struggling to reach the walking cane he had dropped on the pavement. I picked up the cane and put it in his hand. He started talking in Mandarin. Within a few moments it became clear he spoke no English, but by this time he was holding my hand.
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Alexander Vorlicky, 14, who had been reported missing from his East 10th Street home, has been found according to reports. The teen is said to be unharmed, but no further information on the circumstances surrounding his disappearance has been made available. — The Local
Maybe you’ve seen Bruce Lanterman sitting in a blue folding chair in Union Square Park handing out fliers with a photograph that now makes his heart ache.
For almost a year and a half, Mr. Lanterman has been handing out information in Union Square and on the streets of the East Village looking for leads into the disappearance of son, Douglas, a former resident of the neighborhood.
“I feel like I owe it to Doug,“ he said. “I owe it to myself to give it the best shot I can this year to find him.”
Courtesy Lanterman Family Douglas Lanterman.Doctors diagnosed Mr.’s Lanterman’s son with bipolar disorder in December 2007. Over the next two years, he alternated living with his parents in Hackettstown, N. J., and with his brother in an apartment on East 11th Street that they had shared since 2003.
But investigators said that on March 13, 2009, the younger Mr. Lanterman boarded the wrong bus when he was returning to Hackettstown from his job in the Financial District and ended up in Pennsylvania. Mr. Lanterman said that the next day his son called and asked to be picked up.
But Mr. Lanterman said that when he and his wife, Carole, arrived to pick up their son, he refused to get into the car and they have not seen him since. “He just seemed like it wasn’t him, like he was being motivated by something else,” Mr. Lanterman said.
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