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Arthur McKenzie, 76, told hospital workers a deer ran in front of his car Wednesday night when he left home in rural Cleveland County to buy oatmeal cream cookies.
The vehicle plunged down an embankment so steep that McKenzie couldn't climb out.
While local law enforcement issued a Silver Alert after he disappeared, McKenzie spent a cold and foggy night in a heavily wooded area near a creek - less than a mile from his residence. Around mid-morning Thursday, a man checking his property found McKenzie, shaken but alert.
McKenzie was transported to Cleveland Regional Medical Center, where he was in the intensive care unit in stable condition late Thursday.
"He is a strong, strong, strong old man," said Chris Hill, McKenzie's caretaker. "We are thrilled beyond belief that he is safe."
Hill said McKenzie lives with her and her family on Golden Valley Road near Casar in the South Mountain section of northern Cleveland County. A retired heavy equipment operator, he'd suffered a series of strokes over the years but had overcome the condition.
On Wednesday, Hill said, a neighbor for whom she has power of attorney had to have emergency heart surgery at Carolinas Medical Center. Hill went to Charlotte, and her mother, Carolyn Russell, stayed home with McKenzie.
Around 6 p.m., McKenzie announced he was driving to Casar, about 21/2 miles away, because he had run out of the cookies, a favorite treat.
Normally, the trip over a winding, remote country road would take 10 or 15 minutes. "When it began to get dark and he wasn't back, I got a little concerned," Russell said.
As she called other friends where he might have gone, she got the same results and began to worry.
She alerted authorities and called her daughter, telling her to be on the lookout for McKenzie on the way home from Charlotte. "It was a dreadful evening," Russell said. "Just dreadful."
The family was relieved to hear that McKenzie was found OK. The big turkey feast will come later, when McKenzie comes home. But in the future, Russell said, his cookie shopping will be altered.
"I don't think we'll ever let him run out of oatmeal cream cookies again," she said. "Even if I have to go to the store."
