32-Year-Old Caught At Airport In Bizarre Disguise, Tried To Reach New York Impersonating 81-Year-Old
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/CNN) – There was a bizarre sight at an airport in India after a young man tried to board a flight to New York by disguising himself as a senior citizen.
The disguise was impressive – a snow-white beard, oversized glasses, and a wheelchair.
Jayesh Patel's odd plan had one flaw though: the 32-year-old still looks nothing like the 81-year-old he tried to impersonate.
That's right, the resident of the country's Gujarat state attempted to pose as an elderly gentleman in order to reach New York on Sept. 8.
"He posed as if he was very old and incapacitated," Shrikant Kishore, a senior official with India's Central Industrial Security Force, told CNN.
Dressed in a white tunic and trousers, with a white turban and black slippers, the passenger proved reluctant to be frisked at New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport.
"Our screener asked the person in the wheelchair to stand. He said that he cannot stand. Our screener asked if he would stand with support. He reluctantly stood up."
That's when the officer noticed that while the passenger's beard and hair were white, the roots were black. He also was working hard to avoid the officer's eyes.
When the 32-year-old in disguise presented his passport, the documents claimed he was someone named Amrick Singh, born in February of 1938.
"He was definitely not 80 years old. His skin was of a younger person," Kishore told CNN.
Patel eventually confessed to the fraud and he was handed over to immigration authorities for having a fake passport.
It's not clear yet why Patel was trying to get to New York or why he thought his octogenarian disguise was the best route to travel.
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