Jonathan Anker reports for HLNTV:
Christopher Tkacik says he and his dog, Boo, got lost while out hiking on northwest Maryland’s Catoctin Mountain. After several hours of trying to find his way out of a maze of trails, he called 911.
“I still argue with my wife that I wasn’t lost, but I guess I was,” he told HLN affiliate WJZ.
After being told to stay in place and wait for help, Tkacik loaded the flashlight app. Hearing a helicopter overhead, he held up his phone, and used it as a beacon to assist rescuers in locating his position.
In total, Tkacik and Boo spent eight hours lost on the mountain. Without his phone to call 911, and act as a flashlight, it could have been a much longer ordeal.
Tkacik and Boo not only survived, they made it home in time to ring in the new year. “I got home around 9:30. We still went to the party.”