Fake Italian Pilot Arrested After Being Inspired By CATCH ME IF YOU CAN
CATCH ME IF YOU CAN is one of those movies that everyone wishes was their life. Based on a real-life con man, the story followed one Frank Abagnale…a 16-year-old kid who posed as a pilot, a doctor and a lawyer back in the 1960s, and flew more than a million miles around the world.
Well one Italian man recently made the story his life…and is now behind bars.
32-year-old Andrea Sirlo was so inspired by the 2002 film that he decided to create a false identity as a pilot of the German airline Lufthansa. He made a pilot uniform at home and using forged identity cards, flew in the cockpit as a third pilot on at least one flight from Munich to Turin.
Sirlo was caught and arrested after an aviation lieutenant reported him due to age suspicions. He’s been charged with threatening security and assuming false identity, and when police searched Sirlo’s apartment, they found not only fake identity cards and several pilot uniforms, but also an airport staff parking permit, training manuals and two fake resumes. (This guy was thorough!)
Which just goes to show you…leave the cons to Leonardo DiCaprio! The guy could get away with anything…