In 1979, an 18-year-old Austrian named Andreas Mihavecz became the subject of one of the strangest survival stories ever recorded.

After being involved in a car accident near Höchst, Austria, Mihavecz was taken to a government building while authorities dealt with the incident.

He was placed inside a holding cell.

Then, somehow, everyone forgot about him.

For the next 18 days, nobody came to release him.

There was no food. There was no normal supply of drinking water.

As his condition deteriorated, Mihavecz reportedly survived by obtaining tiny amounts of moisture from condensation forming on the walls of the cell. He became severely dehydrated and lost a substantial amount of body weight.

By the time authorities finally discovered him on April 18, 1979, he was reportedly in extremely poor condition and required immediate medical treatment.

Yet he survived.

His case became so extraordinary that Guinness World Records later recognized Mihavecz for the longest recorded survival without food.

There is an important distinction, however.

He did not literally survive 18 days with zero water entering his body. The condensation he reportedly consumed provided at least some moisture, which makes the case different from surviving complete deprivation of both food and water.

Even so, surviving nearly three weeks with essentially no food and extremely limited hydration is extraordinary.

And perhaps the strangest part isn’t the survival itself.

It’s the fact that an entire building somehow failed to notice that an 18-year-old man was still locked inside a police cell for more than two weeks.