German traveler camps out in Brazil airport for a month after robbers take cash, belongings

2nd German traveler camps out in Brazil airport

BRASILIA, Brazil — A German man who went to Brazil for a woman he met on the Internet has been camping out in an airport for more than a month after thieves took all his money and possessions, authorities said Tuesday.

News of Klaus Gutschmidt’s lengthy, unplanned layover comes a week after another German who lived in a separate Brazilian airport finally went home.

Gutschmidt, 50, of Neuss, Germany, moved into the international airport in the coastal resort city of Natal in late December, said Rildo Tarquinio, the airport’s immigration chief. He had been robbed while looking for a hotel after a one-week relationship with the Brazilian woman didn’t work out.

Gutschmidt spends his time wandering the airport and sleeps on flattened cardboard spread on the floor. Food court workers pool their money to buy him meals, Tarquinio said.

Video from Globo TV showed Gutschmidt using computers in the terminal to access the Internet, and he spoke basic Portuguese in an interview with the network.

Relatives and friends donated money for a return ticket, and Gutschmidt is to head home Feb. 16, said Axel Geppert, German consul in Natal.

Another German who came to Brazil only to be dumped by a woman he met online finally left the country Feb. 5. Heinz Muller had camped out at the airport in Campinas for 13 days last year before authorities took him away for psychological evaluation in October.

Muller, a 46-year-old pilot, was out of money and wouldn’t say when he planned to leave, according to airport workers, some of whom brought him meals.

Both cases are similar to that of Hiroshi Nohara, a Japanese man who spent three months in the Mexico City airport in 2008.

Nohara turned into a local celebrity and drew comparisons to Viktor Navorski, a character portrayed by Tom Hanks in the 2004 movie “The Terminal.”