Web Exclusive: Frank Abagnale Jr. tells stories of times he revealed his true identity
(KUTV) Frank Abagnale Jr. met his wife while working on an undercover assignment for the government.
He was posing as a social worker somewhere and his wife was working as an intern while working on a masters degree in psychology.
"Most of the time when I was on an assignment, I didn't get involved with people," Abagnale said. "I always left very abruptly, like I had a death in the family or something, when the assignment was over."
But in the case of his wife, Kelly, he took her to a park and told her the truth about him--even though it was breaking protocol.
"So she looked at me and she said, 'So I guess you're telling me you're a federal agent?' And I said, 'Not by choice,'" he laughed. "So I had to tell her the rest of the story."
She had to tell her family the truth as well--since Abagnale had already met them under a different identity.
"It was very difficult for her parents to be able to deal with that, because I had already met her parents as this other person. But in the end, it worked out," he said.
It was one of the first times he had decided to really trust someone.
During his time posing as an airline pilot, he dated an American Airlines flight attendant.
"I was probably 18, 19, and she was probably about 26," he said. "She thought I was 30."
She asked him to go with her and visit her parents in California.
"I started to realized she was getting very serious about me," he said.
So he decided to tell her the truth after they biked from her house to a nearby park.
"I said, "I'm telling you this because I care about you. I don't want to hurt you,'" explained Abagnale.
She was upset and wanted to go back to her house, but he stayed at the park alone for about 20 minutes before going back.
"I rode one block past her house and I turned and I went up to the corner and looked over the fence and all these police cars where there," he said.
He knew what had happened and vowed to never confide in anyone ever again.
"She did the right thing," he said. "But as a young kid that reinforced, 'See? You can't trust anybody.'"
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