Son spots missing dad living off leftovers in heartbreaking TikTok video nine years after he disappeared
A man has claimed he found his missing father on TikTok, homeless and living off leftover food. A string of videos shared on TikTok showed an elderly man garbed in ripped and filthy clothes living on a mountainside in China, The Sun reports. The elderly man had been missing for nine years.
The TikTok user who uploaded the videos asked for help so that the 71-year-old man can be cared for. Soon after he posted the video, the reported son revealed the elderly person's name is Long Jiaming and that he has been missing for almost a decade. His family reportedly fears he is being exploited.
The decrepit man is seen in one video scooping water out of a vat and drinking some from it, before using the rest to make some rice. Another video shows him squatting on the ground while cooking over a small wood fire.
Long Jiaming, as his son calls him, is seen wearing the same ripped and disheveled clothes in all the videos.
The TikTok uploader urges other users to "follow" his account, noting how the elderly man looks unkempt and needs immediate care. He also claimed he is currently using his own money to provide whatever he can for the homeless man.
In the posts, the uploader also claims the man has no children.
However, a man came forward claiming to be Long Jiaming's son, saying his father has been missing for a long time. He also said that he recognized a scar on the left side of his father's forehead.
That said, the videos have been making rounds of social media over the course of a year and show no improvements in the elderly man's conditions.
“A relative came across the videos and thought he looked like my father, so she sent them to my wife," the son told local media outlets. “We’ve been looking for him for such a long time. He’s definitely my father. That much I know."
“He’s left-handed and has no teeth. Even his hairstyle. I recognize it all," he added.
According to the junior Long, his father was born on July 10, 1948, and went missing when they were working together in the city of Jinjiang in East China’s Fujian province back in 2011. He said he has tried to contact the person behind the TikTok account who had shared the videos. However, he is yet to receive a response.
“I quit my job to look for him. I even filed a missing person report with the police," he explained. “My father is a very honest man. He doesn’t speak Mandarin and is illiterate. He’s a little slower in the head compared to everyone else. Of the 39 videos posted, 37 are of my father."
“We’ve left him lots of private messages, but he’s not responded. Maybe he’s using my father to grow his followers," he added.
Long says he is desperate to bring his father home and is now trying to seek help from authorities again.
Meanwhile, he is also trying to get some help from TikTok, which is called 'Douyin' in China.
The most recent upload reportedly has over 14,000 comments urging the uploader to respond to his family.