When someone goes missing, it can be very scary for family and friends. That’s why they report the person missing, and everyone who can help searches for the missing person hoping to bring him or her home. Sometimes it doesn’t end well, as in the case of Gabby Petito. Other times, the search continues for a long time, as in the case of Petito’s boyfriend, Brian Laundrie.
In Turkey, a 50-year-old man named Beyhan Mutlu went out drinking with some friends. His wife became concerned when she couldn’t reach him on his cell phone. His friends said that he wandered off into a nearby forest. The search began.
Volunteers searched the forest for Mutlu for hours. It was nighttime and dark out. One of the searchers called out Mutlu’s name, and it got the attention of another volunteer who had joined the search.
The volunteer asked, “Who are we looking for? I am here.” It turns out that Mutlu had seen the searchers looking for someone, but he didn’t know the name of the person they were looking for. He didn’t realize they were looking for him. He joined the search party and only realized he was the supposedly missing person when he heard one searcher call out his name.
Mutlu thinks this is a huge misunderstanding. He told Daily Sabah, “Basically, I’m paying for my friends’ mistakes. What happened is all like a joke.”
After everyone realized that Mutlu had been found, the police drove him home.
Although a missing person joining their own search party is very rare, this is not the first time something like this has happened. In fact, something very similar happened in Iceland back in 2012. At that time there was a search party looking for a missing Asian tourist. She didn’t recognize the description of herself and ended up joining the search party for herself.
How would you react if you realized there was a search party out for you and you had been searching for yourself? How do you think Mutlu’s friends and family reacted when they found out what happened? Does it surprise you that someone would join a search party without knowing the name of the person they’re searching for?
