A Frenchman who has made a career illegally climbing buildings and monuments around the world is to be booted out of Brazil for having scaled a Sao Paulo office tower without authorization, police said Friday.
Alain Robert, 45, who likes to call himself the "French Spider-Man" for his urban feats, has been given a week to leave the country or face deportation, a statement said.Robert told AFP his passport had been confiscated, adding that authorities appeared to be taking a stern line with him because of a report in the local media that he had disparaged the Brazilian police.
"I was reported as saying the police were bastards. But I never said that. The police are really open here, they're cool," he protested.
He added that he was also being mobbed by congratulatory citizens in the street. "The people of Sao Paulo love me," he said.
It is not the first time Robert has been kicked out of a country for making a climb.
Last year he was deported from China for illegally going up the side of its tallest building. Chinese officials subsequently invited him back to legitimately climb a mountain in the center of the country as a tourism stunt.
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Source-AFP
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