Pattaya Daily News

November 6: It may be time to closely scrutinize your ‘young geriatric’ friends, for they may well not be what they seem; they might actually be young people in disguise! The reverse is more often the case in trendy venues worldwide, like Malibu, Hawaii, the Bahamas and St Tropez, where the rich middle-aged ape the young in dress, fashionable pursuits and physique via cosmetic surgery. This you can understand. As you age, one’s self image increasingly diverges from reality. It becomes progressively more difficult to accept the wrinkles and flab. Everyone desires to look younger, but under what circumstances would a young person want to look old?

One such incident that happened recently was onboard a plane bound for Vancouver from Hong Kong. What appeared to be an ageing white man turned out to be a young Asian seeking asylum in Canada. When the young man got on the plane, he appeared to all intents and purposes to be a middle-aged American, with a highly wrinkled face and neck, a bulbous nose and poor eyesight, judging by the thickness of his spectacle lenses. His dress was typically middle-aged, too; a nondescript shirt, trousers and cardigan; no fashion sense, whatsoever. He even walked like an elderly person, with no spring or alacrity to his gait.

He apparently maintained this persona until about halfway through the flight when he went into the aircraft’s toilet and reappeared as a young twenties Asian man. His disguise was left in one of the carry-on bags that he abandoned before disembarking. When later examined, the bag was found to contain what has been described as “a silicone-type head and neck mask of an elderly Caucasian male”.

The young man’s ploy, authorities say, was seen through before he actually boarded the flight in Hong Kong. They say that that was a certain disparity between the man’s young-looking hands compared with the rest of his appearance, particularly the lack of age spots, lines or wrinkles. Quite why they didn’t scotch his stratagem before he even boarded the flight isn’t certain.

When confronted by officials of the Canada Border Services Agency at his destination in Vancouver, the young man apparently denied his ruse, but later broke under interrogation, admitting his deceit, that he had donned the disguise before boarding and had then abandoned it several hours later as well as as telling them where his disguise had been left. While the silicone-type disguise was discovered in one of the two bags, nothing was mentioned about the contents of the other, nor why he left two bags.

The young guy confessed to the authorities that his plan had been given considerable thought. Not only had he bought a disguise that would not draw attention because of its non-descript appearance, but he had also swapped boarding passes with a 55-year-old, white male US citizen before getting on the aircraft, and subsequently using a frequent flier card as the necessary ID to board the flight. He re-enacted his ruse for the authorities, putting on the mask to show how effective it looked and emulating the walk of a less than sprightly elderly person. They were suitably impressed, apparently. He has since claimed refugee status in Canada, though the outcome was not disclosed by the source.

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