Yeah that's what I was going to say. The part in the original story about how he had well kept fingernails, etc just screamed hoax.

"he wanted to have a new bucket"

dont we all sometimes...puts a whole new perpsective on moms/dads who abandon their children.

they are simply irresponsible, selfish little pricks.

you create it, you should raise it. PERIOD.

I feel bad for him if he truly had no good guidance in his youth. But if he was just stubborn and didn't OBEY his father as he should have, I suppose this is how he wanted to learn his life lessons - the HARD way.

I'm sure the cops knew it too. But I'm glad they did the right thing by posting his picture everywhere trying to discover the truth. They did their job, if they would have just turned him away and told him to piss off, there's no way of knowing if he was telling the truth or not.

Kudos to the German cops.

In the article it is stated that he had a complicated life because he had to pay bills. Over here we don't call that a "complicated" life, we just call it life. Also noted was that he decided to run away after his gf got pregnant and wanted the baby, but he didn't. I don't understand the sympathy for "Forest Boy." He doesn't want to pay bills or be responsible for his child. Such a hard life. I don't think anyone has faced that much hardship before. Sarcasm off.

I said all along that this was a hoax. All they had to do was some simple blood work and they could have figured out certain immunizations that a "forest boy" would not have had. This douche needs to own his bucket and stop trying to pawn it off on the rest of us.

Damn I am good! The very first time I ever heard this story was here about two weeks ago. Right from the start, I knew exactly what was up with this "forrest boy" character -- --well before the truth came out. It was a hoax --he was running away from a bad situation back @ home -- not getting a long with his step-mom -- taking advantage of social program and the kindness of others in Germany to get by. Don't know why the authorities took so long to catch on to this scam. I am by no means a "hard-ass' anti-social services kind of guy --Actaully I am very much for helping others who really need a little help --but this guy is no poor little kid --he is a grown man who was just a "playing' the people of Germany and running away from his own responsiblitie. This kind of hoax makes it bad for those who really need social programs.

He sounds a lot like my ex, a lying brat who simply never wanted to grow up and be responsible.

I may be oversimplifying a bit. Some of the blame must be laid on the parents. Although we don't know his home life, it seems his parents never taught him even how to be responsible, which, poor or not, is something everyone should learn at one point.

Marie -

Don't be too quick to blame the parents. My ex had a PhD. Her sister was a prostitute, junky, had felonious assault and thdft charges. My wife's sons are almost as disparate, one has no sense of responsibility nor any motivation at all. Some kids just don't learn.

You can guess which side of the genetics/environment argument I come down on.

In this world of entitlement taught to our kids, the young adults now, by schools, universities, TV, and Hollywood right now, parents haven't got a chance anymore! The kids turn on you, spit on the principles, values, and morals you have taught them and tell the parents to "F" off. The young adults in this generation aren't worth the love, time, effort, and money poured into them!

So he's a liar, a loser and soon to be dead beat dad. This story was no story from the start!

for the troll in me that says boo hoo...poor forest boy...send him back to the forest...he can hook up with robin hood and friar tuck...hope a floriduh face eater don't get him...

yep, he had a lot of time to think up a story! What a disappointing outcome. Vacation over sonny ..... now get a job and be a responsible father!

You're not a boy. You're suppose to act like a man. The world throws curve balls at alot of us every day. We don't go running off and making up stories to escape it. Grow up and deal with your responsibilities!

I have yet to hear any reason as to why the German police did not release his photo 8 months ago. I mean seriously?...they release the photo and within 48 hours they have his identity. What took so long?

The best part of this story is that his friend has enough compassion to try and understand the guy rather than just ripping him apart ruthlessly for not being a self-made millionaire by age 16. I think it goes to show that parental care and love is actually quite powerful and important. Maybe he'll get the help he needs so he can pull his life together.

Marie Haughey,

"He sounds a lot like my ex, a lying brat who simply never wanted to grow up and be responsible."

He also sounds a lot like me:

"becoming a loner, spending hours on the computer"

Except that I don't get in trouble.

him and his baby moma... should fly to the U.S.to have the kid...so they can stay here and live off the system...SEE HE AIN'T THAT SMART OR HE WOULD HAVE THOUGHT OF IT JUST LIKE THE ILLEGALS DO EVERYDAY...what a dumas...

SCREW IT ALL!!!! I WANT A NEW BUCKET!!!! What a concept! Lost my house, husband left me the kids all grew up and moved away. My life sucks! I want a new bucket!!!! Do I have to go to Germany? Maybe I could just go up to Canada and wander out of the woods dressed all raggedy like and tell em I was kidnapped by Bigfoot 10 years ago and just escaped! HOO HOO I have a plan!

I do not feel sorry for this kid:1. He has disrespected his family they tried to discipline him and 2. he defide that, they decided ok we will put you with kids your age and maybe you will turn around and 3. he gets a girl pregnant (so she says); so he runs away until he finds someone else where he thinks the grass is greener. I think that no matter what we will always have these who want to deceive the public.

This story portrays way too much sympathy for this young man. He came from a broken home and couldn't get along with his step mother, fought a lot with his father who was too strict. I have a feeling he didn't get along with his step mother because she was tired of supporting him, and he fought with his father because his father urged him to get off his butt and get a job. This young man looks to me like just another guy who didn't want to grow up and get a job and take care of himself or his responsibilities. We have people like him everywhere. I am really surprised at the gentle way this story is being handled. I am especially shocked that it took 8 or 9 months for German officials to release his photo and find out who he is rather than just pamper him and give him exactly what he was looking for all along.

Mo-563393

You would need to have Bigfoot DNA in order for people to believe you. Then you can get a new bucket, but only if you have the DNA...

so all he wants is to play on the computer ,screw around and not work . he wants someone to support him while he does what he pleases gee who wouldnt but that is not the way it is he a selfish little prick , a liar , con artist , and people wondered how he picked up on useing the computer so fast LOL I hope he gets arrested and has to pay back what the germans did for him . then forced to get a job and support the child he created . I knew from the start 9 months ago this could not have been true him being in the woods all those years . pretending he was younger then he was . and that pic of him tells it all with that smirk on his face .

you guys! come on! where's your empathy? the kid's 17! male brains aren't fully mature till age 29! hell i'm pushing 40 (38 next month) and my life's still messy. nobody's perfect. and it sounds like his home life sucked. put yourself in his shoes like his friend did and stop being so judgemental. people who seem not to get love and attention in the proper way seek it out anyway they can. the publicity gave the kid that.

He's not 17...he is 20.. and that's old enough to know that life is hard and we all have to deal with it... My home life was messy as well... but I cant use that as an excuse to be lazy and not take care of my responsibilities.. This man needs to pull his head out of his @$# and grow up!!

Apparently Dad wasn't strict enough.

You have no idea what his life was like with a step-mother & 'strict' is many times another word for abusive. It seems as though he has no one who's cared about him Since he was very young. I wonder why so many people love to think the worst. They must all be such caring human(?) beings.I hope they never find themselves alone as a young teen with no family to care what happens to them.

Sandusky was available back then.

he ain't that smart...he should have flew himself and baby moma to the U.S....and had the baby...like the illegals do...and lived off the system...

Woody -- I really don't believe the Germans seriously believed him, but since the guy was not talking, they simply had no other explanation. Poor baby (sarc), daddy was too strict? Dad probably wanted him to get a job or his act together instead of loafing and playing with the computer all day. Meanwhile, he had a nice holiday in Germany at the expense of the German govt.

@Old Man: OR who think Mitt Romney care about anyone but rich foks like himself -- OR has a clue about what real working people have to do to get by in life (without Daddy's name & trust fund)...

Old Man and Rob - You have both perfectly described each politician/candidate - Obama and Romney. Look what slugs we have to choose from to run our country! Bleh to both of them and all of them!

Most people with trust funds are democrats. Their parents were hard working republicans...

good question, whatever happened to "we the people"? why can't we the people run our own country?! if we ran our country instead of politicians there would be no need for taxes as long as every able body did their part.

@ MEGAN ADAMS,

If you're saying that because of the KENNEDYS...I don't remember any of the elders being republican...or who might you be talking about? Don't be vague.

I did not say that I like Romney. However, he is the lesser of two evils. At least Romney is a capitalist, not a socialist like Obama. If Obama gets another four years our economy will be totally destroyed. If you want historical proof that socialism does not work, look at Russia, China, and a few others.

Scarletbirds: We are supposed to run the country....that's a Democracy; however, corporations and billionaires have the money to "buy" politicians that we don't have. Unfortunately, we have the best government money can buy.....unfortunately, it ain't the one we need or want or the one that will do anything for middle America.

Oh, I didn't realize this was a political story...my mistake.

The U.S. is NOT a democracy - it's a REPUBLIC.

AllPeopleRights, Wrote:

Old Man and Rob - You have both perfectly described each politician/candidate - Obama and Romney. Look what slugs we have to choose from to run our country! Bleh to both of them and all of them!

Right on! We have no real choice, because either way we are screwed. But back to this little scammer, he should have to do community service or something to re-pay the German people!

How did this become a political debate?

USAFCOP,

Everything on Newsvine eventually becomes a political debate, whether it has anything to do with politics or not.

I hear you, but this young adult only wanted to play video games from the sounds of it. When would he have time to get a job and move out? lol

thats what I was thinking, "ran away from home" really?? I call that "leaving", unhappy with with whats going on? get a life, job, ect. or just go live in the forest off the land and when they find you tell them your a hermit and want to be left alone

My job is making and playing video games. Don't see what's so bad about that. Some people sweep floors for a living and that's considered more honorable that being a video game programmer by some middle-aged women with five kids.

yes but you probably went to school for that , and that is Your profession, he didn't. He was only playing not working like you.

I hope you were not referring to me zafada. Like happyjoy said, you are making a living out of it and good for you. I bet it is an awesom job and you support yourself by doing so. Forest boy on the other hand just wanted to play and have no responsiblity.

You are correct. I am middle-aged. And I love games. No children. I do have a great job and contribute to society which is more than I can say for this young lad.

Funny how you turned this story all about you and it wasn't. And I would keep your day job and not start guessing peoples ages, how many kids etc. on the internet because you are probably a better programmer/gamer than that.

zafada - stick with video game making, you struggle at logical reasoning.

there's a WORLD OF DIFFERENCE between making video games for a living, or even playing them (as a tester) for a living...and simply wasting your life away playing video games and doing NOTHING productive with your life.

my mother WISHES video games were never invented, my father might have been some help around the house if they had been. he still wastes a good 2-3 hrs of his day playing games, meanwhile they are behind on their taxes, have a mountain of medical bills...and he cant be bothered to go through all the junk that fills his 2 garages and sell it on ebay or craigs list to pay down his debts.

im not blaming video games, it's all on my dad....love him dearly, but this is hands down the absolute WORST thing about him.

I cant imagine what his life would have been like if the games that exist now, existed when he was 16-18...I doubt he ever would have gotten anything that resembled a real job.

*edited to add - that floor cleaner actually does something quite productive. you create a product that does the opposite, it sucks the productivity out of people. everyone needs to relax, but your profession isnt "honorable"...not even close.

it might pay well, but not honorable. it doesnt have to be though, it's ENTERTAINMENT.

I always get a chuckle at my buddy's dad, he spends a couple/few hours playing Call of Duty every other day, which I find sort of peculiar at his age. But after retiring from IBM after 40 years of service, I guess he's earned the right to do whatever the #$% he wants, lol.

Not at all the case with this kid. He needs to know that society isn't going to support him playing video games. LOL what am I talking about, I don't support that behavior, but my government gives those people my money anyway!

My 27 year old roommate is from the Netherlands. He has no sense of individual responsibility or respect for others. When he needs money for rent or to pay the bills daddy back home gives him everything. He "owes" his parents several thousand dollars but I know he'll never pay them back. He has a steady job here he just prefers to spend all his money on booze and entertainment like DVDs and video games. I know I can't generalize his behavior to the whole country but I see a trend. It's worrying that their young people have no desire to face up to adult responsibilities and stop relying on other people to solve their problems.

Just because you know one spoiled Dutchman (which is one out of 15 million), you're considering that a trend? You can just go around the world and you'll definitely be able to find at least one just like him in every country.

I agree with Susi-Oh just because you know one spoiled brat from the Netherlands doesn't mean they are all like that. You do not know what his agreement is with his parents and what they are willing to do for their child. Maybe they want to spoil him and don't care about getting paid back. There are many other young adults from the Netherlands living in Holland or around the world that support themselves.

One or two people getting their way or not getting their way does not indicate in anyway that every young adult from that country is that way. Life in Europe is different than what we live here in North America we cannot speak on trending based off of what we see from a small group of people that we encounter ourselves.

Might I say that I know many young adults which take care of themselves without the help of their parents and are doing well. I speak from experience as my entire extended family lives in the Netherlands and works very hard for everything they have.

I agree with Susi-Oh just because you know one spoiled brat from the Netherlands doesn't mean they are all like that. You do not know what his agreement is with his parents and what they are willing to do for their child. Maybe they want to spoil him and don't care about getting paid back. There are many other young adults from the Netherlands living in Holland or around the world that support themselves.

One or two people getting their way or not getting their way does not indicate in anyway that every young adult from that country is that way. Life in Europe is different than what we live here in North America we cannot speak on trending based off of what we see from a small group of people that we encounter ourselves.

Might I say that I know many young adults which take care of themselves without the help of their parents and are doing well. I speak from experience as my entire extended family lives in the Netherlands and works very hard for everything they have.

zafada_dynamic;

Being a Video Game designer and playing such games, is your "job". The word is Job, whether it is sweeping floors or designing and trying out games. This "Forest Boy" is a different story!

hope his baby mama...flys to the united states to have the kid...we need more people on the system...Thank you government people...especially obama...

Depression/Mental Issues? That's the go to for everything. Kid has problems, must be the parents. A kid says he can't stand his dad, the dad must be abusive. A teenager says she isn't allowed to go out with friends, she "forgets" to mention UNTIL she raises her grades and does her chores without being reminded every 5 minutes. There's always an excuse, there's always someone to blame, there's always something! Ticks me off!!!

The freaking kid doesn't have depression, he has histrionic personality disorder!!! HAHAHA

not a free ride - a new bucket!

He can have a new bucket. But that doesn't mean his old bucket's going to just disappear!

You want a "new bucket"??? Get a #$@&* job and buy yourself one!

Well said, Rob! And, to women and men of all ages, take care of any children you produce!

there's a hole in the bucket...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBHdZj-qkeQ

or a pretty new bucket

His most obvious issue is a lack of maturity. Mental help isn't going to accomplish much because that is not where the problem lies....

he's a puss...

perhaps a pretty blue one with a little shovel

naw, the german police deserve nothing...they should have been able to see through that crap story from the start...or at the very least, been super suspect...that photo should have been shown 9 months ago when he was caught. lazy police work...period.

here's hoping the girl he knocked up was far more responsible than your friend

Tamara - My sympathies to your friend's child.

I don't blame the dad; he must have smelled deadbeat on that kid...but it does highlight an important point for this generation, one that might not be always 100% effective, but is better than the apparently undesirable alternative:

Condoms. Buy them. (Or don't have sex with devoutly--hah, wait--incredibly hypocritical devout Catholic girls.)

There are plenty of loser bucket-heads in Honolulu sleeping in the parks, eating free meals, and stealing. All they need is a blanket and a shopping cart. That's their home. There is a loser zombie army of homeless beggars in Honolulu that are human garbage. "Got a spare dollar? I have diseases and can't work, alcoholism and drug addiction you know. Can't help myself."

and send him to the showers with sandusky...

The thing is, he obviously just wanted to waste the day away doing nothing productive. The moment his dad would step up and be a parent and tell him that he needs to get a job, he ran away to a hostel and did the same thing there.

This kid is a bum and nothing more.

Shark - My parents were incredibly compassionate - as long as everybody pulled their own weight! My parents taught us honesty (this kid lies), integrity (this kid has none), responsibility (this kid doesn't want any), and assisting anyone who truly needs help. Loser, moochers, are not in the category of "needing help". So, just because you were raised by parents who just "give you everything" and made you an entitled human being, does not mean that parents who expect you to pull yourself up by the bootstraps are not compassionate people!

You would have been LUCKY to have met my parents! Perhaps you would have learned a thing or two!

Scenester, not making excuses for the kid, but really? Do you understand that depression commonly affects a person's motivation? I'm not exactly sure how it is in the Netherlands, but in some European countries it's common for kids up through their mid 20's to still reside at home. I don't see a bum here, I see a pretty troubled kid.

Oh my god, you sound like my daughter talking about her hoodlum friends. She told me, they're not bad, they just have issues. She also said, their parents don't care, they can smoke pot in front of them. So, I said, just remember that I care SOOO much that I'm willing to go to jail if need be. You so much as light a cigarette in front of me and you'll be eating drywall. She tells her friends I'm psycho strict...yeah, maybe I am by today's standards. I expect homework done and chores handled on time. No stickers for brushing her teeth either, not at 16! I paid $4,000.00 for braces and does she brush her teeth? No! Can I not take her to the dentist when her teeth are hurting? No, I'll have to pay through the butt because her deadbeat dad hasn't paid a penny in CS since 2008 and my husband makes too much money for her to go on healthy families and her dad won't sign papers giving my husband shared custody in order to get her on his insurance. And pay I will but ask me if she cares? Ask me if she's appreciative? Ask me if she is well behaved? My answer is no to all of that. And so what if her dad is an absent dad, my dad, my brothers, my husband they all more than make up for his absence! Does she appreciate them , does she respect them? NO! Can you tell I'm a little ticked? Teenagers, they're horrible inventions.

Check Me Out Learn to cut hair on youtube Watch on my channel jsnwelsch17

Don't believe everything you read... and only half of what you see.

Damn freeloader. He would fit in well with the occupy protesters.

Who is going to manage his Farmville account if he gets a job? ;)

How old are you kid? Shouldn't you be in school? You sound like my 16 yr old daughter.

I'm 45 and your an idiot.

Dude that is so awsome! Steven and Richard are the man! Where did you get tat avatar? Did you know that kid had the chicken pox when Richard shot that scene? Cute kid back then hottie now!

O*EqualJDG,

When I first read your post I thought, "What the hell is he talking about? Who are Steven and Richard, and what do they have to do with anything mountainbike was saying?" Only after a little reflection did I realize you were talking about mountainbike's little picture.

That is awsome, where did you get that avatar? Steven and Richard are the man! That kid had the chicken pox when Richard shot that scene. Cute kid then and and a hottie now!

You actually believe the Oedipus Complex is accurate? Gee, you need to think about what you are told. Pretty much anything Sigmund Freud (or shall I say, Fraud) is a bunch of hocus-pocus. In fact, that Sigmund Freud guy is a bigger fraud than this "forest boy".

"Anything Sigmund says." Forgot to put that in.

Thanks rj 17 I thought i was missing some pertinent info here , but you confirmed my initial reaction, punk *** loser. No person on this planet should put another morsel of food or drop of water in his mouth until he takes responsibity for his life and the baby he helped make.

@NFlames

So you're saying that no kid (boys, specifically) has ever grown up hating/resenting their father while in their teens? I know I did. I know this Forest Boy apparently did. I know my older brothers did. I know my best friend did. And I know at least 3 of my cousins did.

Granted, I won't say that's enough of a sample size to prove it, but it certainly does show a common trend developing.

But regardless of your beliefs in psychological theory, I have to ask why you'd bother trying to derail the conversation by attacking something in my post in a way that does nothing to contradict my point, rather it just spouts out that you don't believe in Freud.

sarcasm has it's advantages