Sometimes, we need to spend some time alone to “find ourselves.” But this man in Turkey did more than that when he unknowingly joined a search party to look for himself!
Beyhan Mutlu, a construction worker, had a few drinks with some friends in Inegol, Turkey, and left them around 2 a.m. They were staying at a friend’s villa in an area near the construction site. When he left, he went to one of the villas and slept.
When one of his friends couldn’t find him, he reported him as missing to the authorities, not knowing that Mutlu was sleeping soundly in one of the villas.
Rescue teams were called to search for the 50-year-old. A large group of volunteers joined the mission, and efforts to locate Mutlu intensified in the nearby neighborhoods.
He woke up the following day at around 5 a.m. and saw the search party, thinking that there was an accident on the road. He joined them to help look for the missing person.
Mutlu decided to help first responders and locals find the missing individual and realized that he was the focus of the mission when people started calling his name.
“After a while, they said they were looking for Beyhan Mutlu,” Turkish online news site T24 quoted him as saying. “I broke into a cold sweat when I heard my name.”
It was only when he shouted “I’m here!” that the party realized he was right there with them. Mutlu said he searched with the team for over half an hour.
Authorities took his statement and gave him a ride home. It’s unclear whether he was reprimanded for his actions.
“Basically, I’m paying for my friends’ mistakes. What happened is all like a joke,” he said.
Reportedly, the man was worried that his family would be upset with him over the incident.
“Don’t punish me too harshly, officer. My father will kill me,” he told officers.
As crazy as it sounds, this isn’t the first time a “missing” person joined a search for themselves.
In 2012, an Asian woman in Iceland had a similar experience while in the country’s volcanic region. The woman visited the site on a tour bus with other sight-seers.
The group was given time to explore the Eidgja Canyon, a popular walking area for walking tourists, but this particular visitor failed to return within the allotted time.
She didn’t come back to the bus even after the driver waited for another hour, so a search team descended upon the area.
The group began combing the treeless hillsides looking for the woman described as 5’2 and wearing dark clothing. All of the tourists helped with the search, including the “missing” tourist herself!
Several hours after the search commenced, it was called off at 3 a.m. when the authorities discovered that the woman had been on the bus all along and even helped search for herself.
She had no idea that she had been reported missing and failed to recognize her own description released by the police.
Here’s a video about the story: