MovieChat Forums > The Imposter (2012) Discussion > How is that level of incompetence even p...

How is that level of incompetence even possible?

posted 10 years ago by asyakocaturk
11 replies | jump to latest

The traumatized mystery kid demands to be left alone all night at the police station and they just say ok? Who the hell does that?

He gets his hands on Nicholas's ''missing child'' photo before anyone else there and burns it? How is that possible? Does he have his own office there or what?

The mystery kid suddenly dyes his hair prior to meeting his family and no one at the shelter asks why the hell he is suddenly blond? No one finds this suspicious or weird?

And no one had a written description of the missing child? You know, something that said he had blue eyes? No one ever read that anywhere and went ''this is not him'' or asked about his eyes until he reached United States and told that story?

Also, what adult government official believes that you can change someone's eye color with a solution?

[–] mamamiasweetpeaches 10 years ago

Watching it now. Did he just say he got the same tattoos Nicholas had?? How did a thirteen year old have tattoos????

[–] pilarinhavana 10 years ago

Per the family members, Nicholas was a wild, rebellious kid and always running off.

[–] justin40580 9 years ago

My friend had a completely detailed leg tattoo in 4th grade. Yeah, it happens.

[–] jayme_franklin 9 years ago

You did notice how trashy and uneducated his family was, right? The police were called to the house numerous times to stop fights and such. The mother and older brother had a long history of drug abuse as well. She was too busy napping to give Nicholas a ride home whenever he called and asked for one. After he went missing, his own brother called the police bc he thought he saw his MISSING brother trying to break into the garage?! Most siblings would run outside to see if that was their missing brother and urge him to come inside. The kid was often truant, and when he did show up at school, he would get sent home or suspended for causing trouble. He was due the next day in juvenile court for some unnamed offense, but disappeared the day before.

[–] rpressley 10 years ago

Lots didnt make sense!!

[–] jayme_franklin 9 years ago

Why that woman with the FBI was not fired is beyond me. She honestly believed that his eye color was changed with some chemical solution?! Incompetence all around.

[–] gothbreed 9 years ago

Why that woman with the FBI was not fired is beyond me. She honestly believed that his eye color was changed with some chemical solution?! Incompetence all around.

It is actually possible to change it with various kinds of drops, both into brown aswell as into blue.
For example, and as has been treated earlier on this board, there are prostaglandin analogs such as latanoprost, used for treating glaucoma and that as a side effect may cause hyperpigmentation of, among other tissues, the iris, that in such a case turns into dark brown.

I am quoting from the following article: "Hyperpigmentation, though not serious, is a common side effect of prostaglandin agonists." http://www.cyberounds.com/cmecontent/art270.html?pf=yes

Example taken from same article, where the left eye is the normal one and the right eye the hyperpigmented one: http://www.cyberounds.com/assets/05/28/528/figure1.jpg

There are/were also illegal eyedrops that back in the years some people used to give their eyes the color of blue. I personally knew a vain gay-guy many years ago that used these drops, and his eyes indeed turned blue (dark blue), but with the side effect that his eyes were irritated and running all the time.
As said, these drops were made illegal as people could apparently go blind from them, or at least so it was claimed.

Anyway, just thought it worth mentioning.

[–] BPChamp 9 years ago

The one glaring thing that I couldn't get off my mind the whole time while watching the documentary was how Bourdin assumed a completely made up identity of a non-existent Spanish police officer to talk with the missing persons center in America... and then NOBODY asked who the hell that officer was that identified him as Nicholas Barclay! As the OP points out, there was serious incompetence at play at that police station.

[–] TheManInOil 9 years ago

It really is hard to believe.

Makes me wonder if this documentary is presenting all the facts, or if it's embellishing bits by taking Frederik's word for what happened instead of finding out the truth.

[–] sjankis630 8 years ago

As crazy as it seems this guy got away with stuff like this for years. Here is a good - and very long - article about him and this case from the New Yorker.
I find it hard to believe but some people will believe anything.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/08/11/the-chameleon-annals-of-crime-david-grann

[–] 8 years ago

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