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Fast-Acting Stranger Helps Family Find Missing Elderly Woman

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A missing woman was found Tuesday thanks to a fast-acting stranger and an app.

"If we were all to kind of stick up for each other when we see something's going on and, like, step in and asking questions, I think society would be better," Josy Chap, of Fordham, told CBS2's Tara Jakeway.

Chap has a lot of titles -- mom of two, paralegal and now, guardian angel.

"I'm always trying to help wherever I can, but the fact that... I think right place, right time for me, but I don't feel like a hero," she said.

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A mother from the Bronx helped reunite a missing 83-year-old woman with her family on July 30, 2019. (Credit: Citizen App)

On Tuesday evening, the Bronx native was at Devoe Park, where her 3-year-old, Grayson, was playing with an elderly woman sitting on a bench nearby.

"I didn't know if she was waiting for someone or what she was doing there, but it is the Bronx so you don't want to get in people's business," Chap said.

But Chap makes it her business to monitor goings-on in her neighborhood. She's a religious user of the real-time crime Citizen App. Moments after she left the park, an alert from that app popped up on her phone.

"It said a missing 83-year-old woman with a beige shirt and beige sweater was missing," she said.

It was an exact description of their new friend from the park.

"I started crying. I got scared. Because I think about my grandmother and my kids, and if they're missing, you know, I would like for someone to help," Chap said.

The woman had gone missing from her bus stop at West 197th Street and Claflin Avenue. Chap used the app to alert family members to her location, nearly a mile away. They called police who found her unharmed and brought her home.

"They are all very thankful, very grateful, very nice family," Chap said.

Chap is planning to bring her kids back to the back to reunite with the family she brought back together at some point this weekend.

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