Turkish Fugitive Dressed as Woman Arrested After Eight Years on the Run
A Turkish fugitive who evaded police for eight years by dressing as a woman and using his sister's ID was finally captured in Istanbul after slipping up with a credit card.
An extraordinary story from Turkey: Tugrul Basar, who was sentenced in 2018 to three years in prison for theft and identity theft, managed to evade authorities just before entering prison, sparking an eight-year manhunt.
To avoid recognition, he drastically altered his appearance, dressing and living as a woman. Furthermore, he used his sister's ID card as his own. The disguise worked so well that he walked freely through Istanbul and even presented his sister's ID to police at routine checkpoints without anyone noticing he was a wanted man.
For eight years, police searched for him unsuccessfully using old photographs, until investigators shifted strategy: instead of looking for a man resembling him, they began tracking financial movements and daily activities within his close circle.
The mistake that brought him down was simple: investigators noticed someone making purchases in Istanbul stores using his sister's credit card. Since the sister was abroad at the time, police immediately realized someone else was using her card.
Surveillance of the purchases led officers to an apartment in Istanbul's Kadikoy district. They raided the location and arrested the suspect, whose feminine disguise failed against forensic science: a simple fingerprint check immediately proved he was the fugitive, finally ending a nearly decade-long manhunt.
