You’re working as a customs officer in the Haneda Airport, also known as Tokyo International Airport. A caucasian man with a beard arrives, and while there’s nothing particularly suspicious about him, you sense something is “off.” You ask to see his passport, and he provides it, but something is wrong. It lists his home country as “Taured.” There is no such place.
On a hot day in July 1954, the man from Taured arrived in the Haneda Airport. Customs officials were perplexed, as his passport appeared genuine. As they looked through the pages, they even found stamps from several airports around the world, including previous visits to Tokyo.
He was taken to an interrogation room where he was shown a mapof the world and asked to point out where his country was. He immediately pointed towards the Principality of Andorra, but something was wrong. He became angry and confused; he had never heard of Andorra, and why wasn’t Taured there? He insisted it should be there, after all, Taured had existed for more than 1,000 years!
His bags were searched, and several types of European currencies were found. His employer was contacted, and they had no knowledge of him. They claimed he didn’t work there, although his belongings contained plenty of evidence to the contrary. Even the company he was in Tokyo to conduct business with claimed they had no idea who he was.
The hotel he had booked a room at also hadn’t heard of him. He had no reservation.
Authorities were baffled, but they could not let him go. They booked him a hotel room and placed two guards at the door, until they could positively identify him and get to the bottom of the mystery. Later, when they returned to ask him more questions, he was gone. There was no way he could have escaped, not with the guards at the door. And the room was several floors up, with no balcony, which ruled out an escape from the window.
The man from Taured was never seen again.
Another perplexing, unsolved case is that of the Black Dahlia. Who killed Elizabeth Smart?
