86-Year-Old Detroit Man Disappears While Trying To Collect Lottery Prize
DETROIT (WWJ)- Detroit police are asking the public for help locating a missing 86-year-old man who might have been trying to collect a lottery prize.
Police say Franklin Clements was last seen around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday leaving his home in the 7700 block of Burnette, in a west side neighborhood near Livernois and Tireman avenues.
"I really feel that my husband is lost," Clements' 81-year-old wife Ella told WWJ's Charlie Langton. "Yesterday, you know, he said to me that he wanted me to take him to Lansing because he had caught the lottery for $200 million. And I'm saying 'Oh, yeah right. Ok.' I'm just ignoring what he's saying."
Ella Clements said she "absolutely" didn't believe that her husband hit the jackpot, but she went along with what he told her.
"He's saying to me, 'You just wait till we go to church Sunday and you will see how I fixed the church up.' He said 'You'll see, I'm going to take this money,' and then he told me he's going to buy my pastor's wife a Bentley," she said. "You know what I mean?"
The couple had just returned from a trip to the doctor's office Wednesday afternoon and Ella Clements was talking to her neighbor when her husband of 62-years jumped in the car.
"He got the car keys and he backed the car out of the garage and my neighbor was trying to encourage him not to drive anywhere. But he said 'I've got to get to Lansing.' So I said I would take him to Lansing and I'm just saying that so I can get in the car and snatch the keys out," she said.
But Franklin Clements had his mind made up, and he drove off by himself. After not hearing from him for hours, Ella Clements contacted police. She's especially worried because her husband suffers from heart problems and dementia, and takes several medications of various aliments.
"The police have been wonderful. They came out twice, they're just saying that they're going to continue to look for him," she said. "Every time the phone rings, I'm expecting it to be the police saying they found him."
Franklin Clements is described as a black male with a medium complexion, 6'1" tall and 165 pounds, with black-and-gray hair. He wears glasses and was last seen wearing a black t-shirt, black pants and a black baseball hat that says "God loves you."
Clements is driving a white 2005 Cadillac with license plate BQR-3994.
Anyone with information on Clements' whereabouts or who might see him is urged to contact police at 313-267-4600 or dial 911.
