Happy (and Hilarious) Ending to Welfare Check on Woman, 91

Police in suburban Cleveland went from worried to bemused after a welfare check's happy ending. Around 6pm on April 9, police in Westlake, Ohio, were alerted when a 91-year-old woman failed to answer her scheduled call from the city's automated check-in system, then didn't pick up when a dispatcher tried her phone, per Cleveland.com. After the woman's daughter confirmed she should be home and officers got no response at the door, they grew more concerned. Seeing her car in the garage and unable to reach her, officers used a garage code to get inside—where they found her perfectly fine in her bedroom, engrossed in a "bubble pop" video game, intent on topping her high score.

"Turned out to be all OK," Westlake Police Capt. Jerry Vogel tells WEWS. "Everyone got a good laugh out of it." The woman said she was grateful to officers for checking on her, police say. The department used the incident to plug its "Are You Okay?" program, which gives enrollees a daily call and triggers a follow-up if there's no answer—a system that police say has previously saved lives, per Cleveland.com. "It's a great reminder that Westlake residents have that service for them and they can sign up any time they want," Vogel says, per News 5 Cleveland.