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GRENOBLE, France, Feb 28 (AFP) – An adult man with an apparent Peter Pan complex tried to pass himself off as a missing adolescent but failed to impress local police, a news report said Saturday.
Police arrested the man after DNA tests revealed him to be a 30-year-old imposter who has a career in the United States and Europe of pretending to be a missing child, according to the regional newspaper Le Dauphine Libere.
The report said the man, whose real identity was not revealed, went to police with a tale of supposed kidnapping.
He said he was actually Leo Balley, a boy who disappeared eight years ago while on a trip to the French Alps. If still alive, Balley would now be 14, according to a list of missing persons distributed by police.
Although the arrested man is more than twice that age, he has the appearance of an adolescent, the report said.
It said the man had already played the same game in Texas, where he managed to pass himself off as a missing 16-year-old teenager so well that he lived with the boy’s family for several months before the usurpation was discovered.
The report said the man was sentenced to a six-year jail sentence for identity theft.
© AFP
Subject: France news