Posted on 06/25/2007 4:36:15 AM PDT by rightwingintelligentsia
A University of Pittsburgh student last seen in April was found apparently living among homeless people in Montana, authorities said.
When a ranger at Glacier National Park came across several people Thursday and asked for their identification, one of them was Pranesh Patel, said Pittsburgh police Lt. Daniel Herrmann.
The ranger ran Patel's name through the National Crime Information Center and was alerted to a missing persons report filed May 2 by Patel's brother. The ranger alerted Pittsburgh police, who notified Patel's family.
Patel was spotted again at the park Friday, according to his brother, Tarak Patel. Family members planned to fly to Montana to try to locate him, according to his brother.
Pranesh Patel, 23, of Sicklerville, N.J., was not detained by authorities because he hadn't committed any crime.
"We are glad that he's OK," said Tarak Patel, adding that his brother has no ties to Montana. "It's been rough not knowing where he is and wondering if he's OK or needs help."
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
Mental illness is tough on families.
I hope they can get him some help.Tough on the family for sure.
I’ve not seen a homeless Indian here in the states before.
How does a homeless person—and apparently several of them—end up at a place like Glacier? It’s not exactly on the beaten path. Do we have squatters in our national parks now? I’d like to know more about this; not only the missing individual, but who all these other people are, how the got there, and whether this is a common thing in national parks.
Getting out of Pittsburg is a ‘move-up’. This is a success story and belongs in Forbes magazine.
Glacier National Park - awesome, beautiful place.
Squatting seems to be pretty common in parks. It used to be a big problem in California state parks, and many of the people were mentally ill. The state finally took action when a mentally ill man with a machete killed and hacked up members of a family of campers who were sleeping in a tent at the family camping area. I think the situation is better in the state parks, but it sounds as if the squatters have moved on to the national parks now.
Does this strike anybody else as a little sinister? Unless there was some crime involved that's not mentioned.
I guess the old campfire stories of ghosts are going to turn into stories about mad homeless people with hatchets.
The problem is that the latter has more of a chance of becoming a reality...
Learning to spell would be a step up for you.
Sorry for the non-proof read. Thanks
Sounds like he’s an all around loser. Failing all his classes, claims a class project was stolen, arrested for DUI, had his license suspended, dropped out of college, basically ran away from home, not a word to his family and friends that he’s alive, and now living with a bunch of homeless folk in the middle of a national park.
There's a kiddie miniature train that has run through a park at a San Antonio museum for decades. Now you can't take your kids on it because of all the homeless living inches off the track.
In more places than you think, their idea of dealing with folks like this is to buy them a bus ticket and send them on their way.
It is difficult being homeless especially when the train you keep jumping brings you right back the the same place ... over and over and over again! Deja vu again?
Hey now. HEY NOW!
moonman looking for a Burghstyle beatdown? ; )
LOL I’m from PA also, outside of Philly. Moving out of Philly area and PA was definately a ‘move up’ for me. News I get about that town and people isn’t good. Hopefully, Pittsburgh is a little better. GO PENN STATE!
The guy shoulda gone to Mars, it’s a heck of a lot closer.
well as a Pitt alumnus, i have to say, that's yer problem right there... ; )
Not necessarily. My cousin, successful, college educated, long term job with Marriott Corp. on their computers, 20 year marriage, two great teenage kids. He’d always been funny and the life of the party, one Christmas he seemed a little ‘off’. Nothing my parents could put their finger on but I remember them talking about his almost-bouncing-off-the-walls behavior A week later we get a call from his wife, in case he shows up (they lived 3 hours away.) He just went ballistic, tore the front door off the hinges and disappeared. Several weeks later, the cops found him walking on a beach in FL (lived in the upper Northeast). Clothes gone except for a pair of shorts, no shoes, no ID, and no idea how he got to FL. Found out he was bipolar (the ‘manic’ state we noticed at Christmas and then the ‘depressive’ side a few weeks later). That was the worst episode, there’d been things in the years before that everyone just put down as his moodiness that were in actuality the swings of mental illness. Luckily he was easily treated, had supportive family and the money and insurance to be treated. If there is a mental illness there though, it doesn’t mean the person is a loser.
Nope.
This year’s gathering is in Arkansas.
http://www.welcomehome.org/rainbow/sites/annual-site.html
I guess you see it all here on Free Republic. I went to a Rainbow Gathering in Oregon in the late 70’s.
Mental illness could be a factor here.
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