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Top News- New York Newcomer Gets Lost for Five Days - AOL News
NEW YORK (Jan. 22) - A newcomer to the city became hopelessly lost for five days after going for a walk.
Damon Mootoo, from Guyana, was staying at his brother's house in the borough of Queens, when he decided to go for the stroll last Wednesday - 12 hours after arriving in New York for the first time, the Daily News reported Monday.
The 32-year-old man quickly got disoriented. On Sunday night, after a man came to his aid, he was recovering at Jamaica Hospital from dehydration and frostbite.
Mootoo, who is hard of hearing but can communicate in English, said he did not ask for directions because he was afraid he would be deported and had heard many scary stories about New York. He recently had received his permanent resident card.
Michael Bharath said he was walking home from church when he spotted Mootoo shivering on the street. He and his wife made Mootoo a sandwich, then drove him to his stepmother's home.
"When I see people in need, I try to help them," Bharath told the News. "He was in need, and I'm pretty sure that within a couple more hours he would have been a dead man."
Mootoo had begged for water, but was too ashamed and shy to ask for food or directions, his brother, Roger Miller, told the News. Mootoo slept in an abandoned car or sought shelter under a piece of wood in a stranger's yard.
"I want to go home," he said. "I'm thinking about going back to Guyana."