Cary Dolego, the love-seeking Queen Creek man we wrote about yesterday who's homeless in the Ukraine, has been rejected by "Yulia," the surgeon with whom he'd been e-mailing.
The former write-in candidate for the 2010 Arizona governor's race went to the Ukraine in the spring as part of a matchmaking service, followed by cameras from ABC News. After failing to find a mate, having his bank account frozen and getting kicked out of an apartment, he ended up on the streets of a small town with other homeless people. Social workers found him this week, disheveled and dirty, but carrying a suit and personal computer.
Since our article, which was based on Ukrainian news reports, a reporter for the Associated Press not only phoned Dolego at the hospital where he'd been treated for pneumonia but managed to get ahold of his dream girl, Yulia.
She told AP that a man from the dating service had confessed to her that the service had been writing to Dolego in her name, stringing him along. From the article by Maria Danilova:
Yulia, it turned out, had been unaware of Dolego's existence. She told the AP that someone had hacked into her account on an Internet dating site and had been communicating with Dolego on her behalf and charging Dolego for those e-mails. After that man informed her of what had happened to Dolego, Yulia paid him a visit to express her support and sympathy."I went to the hospital and he started hugging me: 'Oh Yulia, oh Yulia!' I was shocked," she said. "He thought we were getting married." Yulia, a 29-year-old doctor, declined to give her last name, saying she wanted to avoid publicity.
Dolego still has stars in his eyes for Yulia. But she told AP, "He is not really my type."
The rejection is the latest blow for Dolego, who reportedly sold his home and other items for the trip, during which he'd also hoped to sell Ukrainian engineers on his ideas to make air and sea travel safer.
Social workers are hoping to get to him from the small town of Chernovtsy to Kiev, where the U.S. Embassy might get him back to Arizona.
With his bank account presumably accessible again if he's back in the States, Dolego ought to be able to avoid the Valley's crowded homeless shelters and maybe even regale the local ladies with tales of his adventures.
UPDATE: The Moscow Times conducts a longer interview with Dolego.
UPDATE 11/17: Dolego to come home next week.
