‘Mystery’ mime artist vanishes with charity fete cash after villagers paid to guess his identity
A mystery mime artist , who was dressed in a black and white bodysuit, took donations from villagers at a fair to guess his identity then fled with their money.
The man, who only communicated by mime, attended the Woolaston Carnival in the Forest of Dean on Saturday June 22 and offered the locals a £100 prize fund if they could correctly identify him.
However, after he successfully collected “several hundred pounds” he left the festival with the money.
The form he gave villagers said ‘Is it a bird, is it a plane. No it’s Woolaston’s Mystery Man’ leaving a place for residents to leave their guesses.
Locals thought the man, who asked for £1 a guess, was a villager raising funds for a new hall and many asked for a selfie.
Some villagers think the saga could be a bad joke by the mime artist and even believe they could know who the suspect is.
Carnival co-ordinator Andy Morgan Watts said he initially thought it was a good way to raise funds.
However he then said: “But when he disappeared it left a bad taste because people thought they had been giving money to charity.
“I still like to believe that he is just dragging it out to get the maximum amount of money possible from a good idea.
“Some people think I'm being too kind but we will have to wait and see which way it goes. It's clearly as black and white as his suit.”
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Sue Anderson who is on the carnival committee said: “There's nothing unusual in people joining the parade so we didn't think much of it when he snuck in.
“Everyone thought it was a great idea and he was dancing with the samba band and putting his arm around children who wanted their photograph taken with him.”
The organisers received an email from the mystery man, who offered to put £100 in the carnival’s account, after they put out an appeal on Facebook.
However, they have not heard anything after they declined.
Ms Anderson said: “We could go to the police but they are hardly going to be able to identify him in a line up and as everybody keeps joking, he’s probably already got a chequered past."
