According to an Instagram post by Mini Blanchard, Dane Reynolds’ long-time friend and filmer, Dane is currently sitting in a jail in Portugal. Apparently, he showed up at the Lisbon airport with no passport.
“Dane Reynolds is currently being held captive and treated like a criminal at the Lisbon, Portugal International Airport Jail,” he wrote. “Yes, jail! All because he lost his passport! He’s been there for two days now. They took his phone, backpack, even his shoelaces WTF! And to top it off, the US Embassy is doing very little to help him.”
While the US Passport office does offer an emergency passport service, it’s generally reserved for a “life or death emergency” and takes up to three days. Losing a passport in a foreign country is never a good thing, as getting a hold of an embassy isn’t always easy. To top it off, obtaining a new passport usually requires things that you might not have: a police report, passport photos, a return flight, and of course, the money to do it.
Despite Dane’s situation and Mini’s anger, the Portuguese border security is simply doing their job. As one commenter wrote on Instagram, “I understand you might feel frustrated but I urge you to see the situation from another perspective. Non-EU people cannot travel within airports without a Passport, that is the law, and the Portuguese security team is following it and they don’t seem to be abusing their authority. This situation can be solved, however, the US Embassy seems to be the one keeping Dane in a loophole so if there’s something you can and should complain about is that bureaucratic loophole, not the airport for doing its job.”
Dane will get out soon, though… and you can bet he’s going to keep his hand on his passport from now on.
