Bryan Ward didn’t think much about a photo his friend texted him of a red Mazda 3 in the woods – at least, not until he heard about a search for a missing 19-year-old from the night before.
Then that photo suddenly gained a whole lot more importance, and the Westville man and his friend became instrumental in the process of finding the missing Ahmed Mohamed.
“We have a small towing company, and (my friend) wanted to see if I had gotten the call to that accident.” As it turned out, Ward’s company was not called to assist with a red car that had gone off the road in Pictou County near Salt Springs. “I never thought about it, since we never got the call,” said Ward in a call with The News.
Ward said he went on with the rest of his day, until around 9 p.m. Saturday. At that point, his wife logged onto Facebook, and saw the call for any information on Ahmed Mohamed, who went missing the night before, and was last seen at the Glasgow Pub in downtown New Glasgow.
At that point, the information clicked for Ward and he made the connection. He said the realization the car in the photo matched the description of the missing Mohamed’s car was like a light bulb flashing over his head, and he immediately sprang to action.
“After my wife ran off the description of the Mazda 3 and the licence plate, I called my friend (Chris Selig) and said, ‘Let’s check that car out.’ We took a drive out there, and there it was,” said Ward.
Once they arrived and found the Mazda 3 still sitting in the woods and wrecked, Ward immediately called 911, “as soon as we saw that the licence plate number matched.”
Ward and Selig remained at the scene until emergency services and the police arrived. Ward said he and Selig were pleasantly surprised when Mohamed was discovered a couple of hundred feet from the wrecked vehicle.
“At the time, we were surprised he was found alive when the dog found him, and the RCMP hollered ‘He’s alive.’ We looked at each other, amazed,” said Ward. “We were very happy, because I honestly don’t think the poor guy would have lasted another night out in the woods. It was very cold that night.”
Ward hopes Mohamed will quickly recover, and noted that, “I’m hoping (Mohamed’s) mother and father contact us, and let us know how he’s doing.”
