The 20-year-old hoaxer,
who claimed he was 17 and lived in the German woods for five years, is
actually from Hengelo, in the Netherlands. He never lived in the forest
and made his way to Berlin some time last year, police said.
He had been declared
missing in September when he was 19. But because he was an adult and
could determine where he wanted to live, there was no further
investigation by Dutch authorities, police in Germany said.
Police say the man has
admitted his story is a lie and confirmed his identity. He will have to
leave a Berlin city youth home since he is not under age.
The hoax ended after
German police released a photograph of who they said was a 17-year-old
known only as "Ray" who turned up at Berlin City Hall last year after
claiming to have been living in the woods for five years.
Police say that not long
after the first pictures of the man were published, a female
acquaintance recognized him and told a Dutch TV network. The network
informed the Dutch police, who then notified authorities in Berlin.
Ed Koch, a spokesman for
the youth services office of Berlin's Tempelhof-Schoeneberg district,
where the young man has been staying in the youth home, told CNN he is
very angry about the hoax.
"He received funds from us for seven months that could have gone to other people in need," he said.
Koch says that the man will be given a notice to leave the youth home but will not be kicked out immediately.
"He will get some time to prepare. We might also just put him on a train to the Netherlands. We are not sure yet," he said.
Koch confirmed that
authorities are looking into legal action against the man for "social
fraud," for illegally getting housing and board for months, as well as a
German language course, a cell phone, clothes and other items.
The release of the
photograph, along with details of his appearance and scant possessions
at the time of his discovery, was part of an effort by German
authorities to unravel the mysterious identity and family background of a
young man who spoke English and a little German.
According to authorities, he claimed to know only his name, his date of birth of June 20, 1994, and his parents' first names.
After months of investigation, German authorities said they were stumped.
The man told authorities
upon his discovery last September that he had been living in the woods
with his father, Ryan, but decided to leave after his father died,
investigators said. He couldn't explain why his father died.
Ray was unable to name
or show the place he buried his father in the forest underneath stones,
officials said, so investigators couldn't find the body.
"They were hiking with
the help of maps and a compass only and stayed in tents or caves
overnight," Berlin authorities cited the boy as saying, in a statement
released Tuesday.
Ray provided police with
"some vague information" about his mother, saying her name was Doreen,
and he wore a gold-colored necklace around his neck that held a pendant
with the letter "D," police said.
He claimed that his
mother had died in a car accident when he was 12 years old, but he
didn't remember the details of the accident, authorities said. He said
he presumed the accident caused the scars on his face.
After his father died
last August, he said, he roamed north for five days until he arrived at
Berlin City Hall and asked for help last September 5, authorities said.
He couldn't "specify
anything about cities, countries or regions him and his father had
traveled through," they said in a statement.
A guardian was appointed, and German authorities tried to establish his identity through Interpol.
"The Youth Office and
the Berlin Police have great doubts on the boy's story. That is the
reason why the Youth Office now decided to publish a photo of 'Ray' and
ask for your help," authorities had said in the statement.
The story was compared
to that of the "Piano Man," who was found wandering near a beach on the
isle of Sheppey, Kent, in southern England in 2005. He was wearing a
waterlogged dinner suit with all its labels cut out and a tie. It
initially was reported that he stunned witnesses with a "virtuoso
performance" on the piano.
The man was identified
as a 20-year-old German national from Bavaria after telling staff at a
hospital that he had been attempting suicide when found by police, the
Times of London reported in August 2005. The man could not play the
piano as well as initially reported, the newspaper said.
The man, whom authorities did not identify because of confidentiality laws, flew back home to Germany, the Times said.(Frederik Pleitgen per "CNN")
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