Mehran Karimi Nasseri
 

WTF, man? Just go to freaking Belgium!

He went to France

and now I know who Mehran Karimi Nasseri is. I said a goddamn!

Yeah, in 2006. To a hospital.

The Belgians gave him a free pass to return w/o paperwork in '95, and he declined it. He could have gone there, satisfied them that he wasn't crazy, gotten his papers, and gone on his way.

Then, in '99, the French offered him temporary residency, and he declined it. Wouldn't have helped much with the passport situation, but at least he'd have gotten out of the freaking terminal building.

Ok, so I get that he was pretty much borked from '88 through '95 (and don't get me wrong, seven years is a hell of a long time to sit in a damn airport) but after that?

No, he waited until 2006, when they had to carry him out. That's eleven years wasted sitting in freaking Terminal 1 when he could have been doing... I dunno, something other than waiting in a damn airport terminal.

Wasn't there a crappy Tom Hanks movie about this?

Aptly named, The Terminal.

I wonder how he came up with money...

Maybe he returned the carts for 25 cents a pop.

" He was visited regularly by the onsite doctor and relied on the good wishes of staff and fellow travellers for food and drink. He did not, however, like to accept 'charity' and returned donated clothing to its source with a 'thanks, but no thanks'."

"Film director Stephen Spielberg heard of Nasseri's plight and sent his minions to purchase his life story. The subsequent deal supposedly made Nasseri the richest homeless man in Europe, and quite possibly the world. His fee of $200,000 - $300,000 was paid into his account at the airport - but he made no notable changes to his lifestyle."

Source: BBC - h2g2 - Mehran Karimi Nasseri - In Transit

Didn't he make money off of book deals? I think I remember something like that from a middle school project.

I always thought that story was some kind of urban legend, guess not.

He's got nothing on Sanju Bhagat.

:barf: I saw that earlier today.