Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast
This Colombian Kid Stole Millions - The Juan Carlos Betancourt story
05 Feb 2025
This is the story of Juan Carlos Betancourt, the con artist from Colombia
Full Episode
So this little kid, he might be one of the best con artists I've ever seen. Let me show you. Now his name is Juan Carlos, and he lives in Colombia. And so far, he's had a really hard life. But Juan Carlos is about to do whatever it takes to succeed. So one day, he sets out to make that happen. And he heads to the local airport to catch a flight to Miami.
But little Juan Carlos, he can't afford a plane ticket. So he sneaks onto the tarmac and he climbs onto a cargo plane and he hides out in the wheel well. And he allegedly holds on real tight while the plane takes off and flies three and a half hours from Cali, Columbia to Miami, Florida. Then the plane lands and allegedly Juan Carlos falls out of the wheel well.
And he just lays there on the tarmac, unconscious. And airport staff, they eventually find him. And he's shivering, and he's disoriented, and he's just a wreck. But he tells them, not that his name is Juan Carlos, but that his name is Guillermo, and that he's 13 and from Colombia, and that his parents had died, and that he doesn't have anyone else, so he fled to America.
And his story just blows people away. Because they feel sorry for him. And so the local media, they start covering it. Then a police officer in the area, this guy, Lozano, he's driving home one day and he hears the story on the radio that they found this 13-year-old kid who had been hiding in the wheel well of a plane.
And Lozano is so moved, he goes and he volunteers to be Juan Carlos' temporary guardian while the state figures out what to do with him. So Juan Carlos goes and he lives with Lozano and his family. And this changes his life. Suddenly he's not living in poverty anymore. And this middle class lifestyle feels like wealth to him.
And they've got all these nice things and so he tells himself that soon he's gonna have nice things too. And within a few weeks of living with Lozano's family, Juan Carlos starts stealing. And things around the house go missing. Plus, he's been disappearing for days at a time. And Lozano and his wife, they start thinking that something isn't adding up about this kid.
Then, one day, they get a call. And it's the Colombian consulate, who had just gotten some important information. Turns out Juan Carlos isn't actually named Guillermo. He's named Juan Carlos. And he isn't some innocent kid. He's actually got a criminal record. And he isn't 13. He's actually 17. And his parents aren't dead. They're actually alive and well back in Colombia.
And he probably didn't ride in the wheel well of that plane. It's more likely that he rode inside the plane with the cargo. And he just lied about it all because it made a better story. So Juan Carlos is just a little con artist trying to con his way into the United States so that he can have a better life. And so, bam, they immediately detain him and they deport him back to Colombia.
Oh, but this isn't over for Juan Carlos. Because for a moment, he got a taste of a much better life. And he'll do anything to get that back. So over the years, Juan Carlos tries his best to scam his way out of Colombia and get back into the US and other countries using different aliases and fake IDs. But he ends up getting deported, like a bunch of different times.
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