Alex wrote: ↑Sun Mar 29, 2020 12:45 pm Checking his brain would be a good next move.

Done. Good suggestion.


UPDATE, 2 April 2020:

Cambodia News (Phnom Penh): The Lieutenant Chea Chetra, director of Investigation and Procedure Office at the Phnom Penh Department of Immigration, reported that they received a 64-year-old American man, LEWIS​ JEFFREY​ COOK, today, on the afternoon of 2 April 2020.


The lieutenant said the American man was arrested on March 29, 2020, at 1:30 pm, on suspicion of having COVID-19, because of strange behavior filmed inside an ATM booth. Also, when he was apprehended, he had no passport. (However, it was said later that his passport was missing because it had been sent to the immigration department for visa renewal.)

After questioning, the police found that the American man came to Cambodia frequently as a tourist, and the last time was January 2020, through Phnom Penh International Airport. He was staying at Mean Leap 2 guesthouse in Phnom Penh.

The American was seen behaving strangely on March 25, 2020, when he went to a few ATMs in Phnom Penh with some fake US bank notes where he had written in felt pen " I AM ALIVE VIA JESUS CHRIST".
He was then captured on CCTV in the act of what appeared to be putting his saliva on the counterfeit note, before leaving it on top of the ATM machine.


In these times of pandemic, after seeing the film, the Cambodian police naturally searched for and detained the American man and sent him to Chak Angreng medical center for a health check. The test results from Pasteur Institute showed that the man was negative for COVID-19 and illegal drugs, but he is suspected of having mental problems associated with his fervent religious beliefs. He is also an ex-US marine, discharged in 1982.


It seems that well before the American man visited Cambodia, he already had problems with US authorities and had been in jail twice in his home country. The first time was in 1991, when he was jailed for 16 months on charges of setting a forest fire in California, and the second time he was jailed in 2007 in Washington for one month for disturbing the peace.


The immigration chief, Mr. Chea Chetra said that that the American man did not co-operate with the Cambodian police to explain his actions, and that he was guilty of being a public nuisance and upsetting the population, while people around the world are fighting against COVID-19.