Do you know “Lucky”? Police can’t ID foreign man in Amsterdam

Amsterdam cold case police are appealing for help identifying a man known as “Lucky” who collapsed on the street three years ago after suffering a suspected brain haemorrhage or stroke.

Doctors believe he subsequently developed aphasia, which makes communication nearly impossible. No one has been able to work out who he is or where he came from.

He now lives in a care home in Amsterdam Zuidoost and the only words he still uses are English ones – “nonsense” and “definitely” – which he uses to confirm or deny things. He spoke in an American or Canadian accent, the police say. Beyond that, he cannot talk or communicate at all.

Detectives first began looking into the case in 2023 but every line of inquiry ran into a dead end. The search then passed to the force’s cold case team, where two retired members, named as Ruud and Nel, are now volunteering to find out who he is. Presumably, somewhere his family or friends are looking for him.

A police spokesperson told DutchNews that they have tried to find his identity through DNA databases and with facial recognition technologies, but to no avail. Strict privacy rules limit their powers to access larger data sources where a match could be found, they said.

People who knew him think he may have come from the US or Canada because of his accent. He also may have had a past in Nepal.

A public appeal for information has garnered an “overwhelming” response, police say, with more than 140 tip-offs reported on the first day.

Two nicknames, conflicting clues
Digging into his former social circle, the investigators found that he belonged to a Buddhist community on Middenweg, in the east of the city, where he was known as “Lucky”.

They also learned that he would occasionally have a drink at Soep en Zo, a café on Waterlooplein, where regulars knew him by a different name again: “Chris the Canadian”.

A worker at Soep en Zo who remembers him told DutchNews that he would frequent the shop, often looking shabby and seeming mentally unwell. He always carried a suitcase with him, and would ask for very particular variations of soup, which they would accommodate. He always had money despite his appearance.

Investigators say a lot of the information they’ve gathered is conflicting. “He was supposedly filthy rich, but at the same time he was wandering the streets of Amsterdam,” according to Ruud.

But what the investigators cannot understand is how a person could leave so little trace. “I simply cannot believe that nobody knows who this man really is,” Nel said. “Isn’t it strange that you could perhaps live under the radar in the Netherlands for 20 years?”

“Every person has the right to an identity,” Ruud stressed, “and that includes this man.”

Anyone with potential information on the case can report it to the police here.