“Michael” shuffles his stack of empty
cigarette packs, as police bring him to the station for processing.
Boonlua Chatree
Chonburi Immigration Police picked up a mentally
disturbed German man found wandering in tattered clothes down a Pattaya
street.
“Michael”, who is in his late 40s, was reported
wearing only a ragged shirt and torn pants while picking up trash and
mumbling to himself on Soi Buakaow Sept. 20. Immigration police wrapped
a towel around him and took him back to their Jomtien Beach station, but
not before onlookers donated more than 1,000 baht in spare change to the
man.
Witnesses reported that the German claimed that his
Thai wife had left him after he’d lost all his money and that now he had
no place to live. Others claim he has spent about 8 years wandering
around Bangkok in the same threadbare clothes.
Immigration officers found no identification papers
on him and planned to contact German authorities in preparation for his
deportation. However, allegedly he has been released and there are
unconfirmed reports that he is back wandering around Soi Buakaow.
