New Delhi: An Australian man who went missing for 18 days has been found after getting lost in the bush with his dog when their car got stuck in the mud. On being found, the man said that he was forced to live off wild mushrooms and water from a dam for three weeks.
Before he went missing, the 58-year-old man, Robert Weber, was last seen leaving a hotel in the town of Kilkvian, Queensland, with his dog on January 6. And, later he was discovered on Sunday after police had called off efforts to rescue him.
According to the police, Weber was found after search efforts were called off. He was reportedly found near a dam on Sunday by a “property owner”, who has been identified in Australian media as a local politician.
Local MP Tony Perrett and his wife were reported to have found Weber just 3km (1.9 miles) from where his car had been discovered, after searching their cattle farm. “He was sitting under a tree near a dam waving at us,” said Perrett.
“We’d been past this dam on numerous occasions over the last week and when we saw him there it was just quite extraordinary,” he added.
Weber was “suffering exposure to the elements” but otherwise safe and well, police said.
As per a BBC report, Weber spent three days in the car before running out of water and setting off on foot. He then became lost but remained near a dam where he survived by “sleeping on the ground, drinking dam water and eating mushrooms”.
However, Weber’s dog has not been found yet.