Who is the man who has been standing in front of a store in Subotica for 46 days?

Photo: Suboticke.rs

As of Tuesday, 33-year-old A.D. has been standing in front of a store on Jovana Mikica Road in Subotica for exactly 46 days. When it gets dark, shoppers often don't even notice him. When the store closes, A.D. says that he goes to the railroad tracks where he has a hole in which he sleeps. He shows a sleeping bag he got from an acquaintance. In the evening, he crawls into the bag and sleeps, then returns to the store, Suboticke is reporting.

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A.D. claims to be a citizen of Mauritania, where his mother is from, but that he was born in Zaire. Allegedly, 52 days ago, after drinking a bit more than he should have, he fell asleep on a train that took him from Vienna to Budapest, from where the Hungarian police, although the conductor wanted to help him return, deported him to Serbia. He also says that he was treated in a sanatorium in Salzburg, where, again allegedly, they have his medical records.

"Call the sanatorium in Salzburg. I was treated there. They know everything about me there, they have my records there. I was in Austria since 2013. The Hungarian police sent me here," A.D. says, speaking decent English.

He then shows the documentation written in German and explains that he has a bad knee, which often hurts. Because of that knee, he was treated in the sanatorium and because of it, he cannot cross the Hungarian wire wall. He was waiting for a month and a half on the Cordas Road for some people who promised him help, that is, to help him return to Austria, not understanding, it seems, that the only thing he would live to see is the winter and the snow, the newspaper writes.

The Subotica police know nothing about this mysterious man.

Photo: Suboticke.rs

"Neighbors are kind to him," they say in the store. "He goes neither hungry nor thirsty. As far as we understand him, he says that he lived on welfare in Austria. We don't know how he found himself in Hungary, but the Hungarian police allegedly did not allow him to return home. They sent him here. We are inclined to believe that in Austria, if he really came from that country, he lived in a similar way, because some guys here offered him a job, to earn some money, but he did not want to work. You can talk to him, but the story is over when we mention a job and working. That is where the communication ends."

People working in the store add that they called the police several times, who took the man to a migrant center, from where he would each time return the following morning.

People from the area confirm these words and say that their temporary neighbor is peaceful. He just stands there, as if trying to prop up the sky next to the store, right at the place where Višnjicka Street flows into Jovana Mikica Road.

(Telegraf.rs)