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This British man who vanished while travelling to the World Cup was found living his best life in a pub in Spain, and truly this is what real freedom looks like

Michael White. Updated July 4th, 2026

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Here’s a new addition to the “you couldn’t make it up” file.

Michael Hewitt, a 65-year-old from Leeds, left the UK on June 20, flying to Spain for a layover before travelling on to Boston for the start of the World Cup.

But then he lost his phone which had all of his tickets stored on it. So Michael decided to just stick around Barcelona watching the World Cup there instead.

The only issue is he didn’t contact his family, because he didn’t remember any numbers and didn’t have access to the internet. So they then started a frantic search for him.

“He lost his phone soon after arriving in Barcelona, and didn’t know any of the phone numbers stored on it,” Michael’s brother, Gary, told ‘The Sun’.

“He didn’t think to go to the embassy as he still had his passport and money, so didn’t think they’d be interested.”

When Michael’s family hadn’t heard from him, they reported him missing. The Foreign Office and Interpol got involved, and after 10 days, the British Embassy in Spain tracked Michael down hotel through his card payments.

“As a family, we desperately wanted an embarrassingly simple but happy ending to this horrendous episode, and we now have that,” brother Gary said.

The story has caught people’s imaginations all over the world. Here’s a selection of the funny responses.

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Source: Twitter/X/nypost