According to reporting by Turkish outlet Hürriyet Daily News, his friend had left the property believing that Mutlu had also gone home. Mutlu, however, had remained behind and slept after the previous night's drinking.
This detail helps explain why his disappearance became so confusing.
His friends believed he had left. His family believed he had not returned. The authorities were searching for him.
But Mutlu had not necessarily travelled far away or encountered the kind of emergency that the search party feared might have occurred.
He had simply ended up somewhere different from where the people around him expected him to be.
When he woke up, he apparently did not realise that his absence had triggered a search.
That lack of information was crucial. If he had known that his family had reported him missing, he might have tried to contact them or return home immediately.
Instead, he encountered a group of people conducting a search and misunderstood their purpose.
The story does not require a complicated explanation. Mutlu was unaware of the situation that had developed while he was out of contact, and the searchers did not immediately recognise that he was the man they were seeking.
It was an unusual combination of circumstances, but once those circumstances are understood, the sequence becomes easier to follow.
The man was safe. The people looking for him were nearby. The only missing element was the knowledge that connected the two.
5. He Sees the Search Party and Decides to Help
At some point after waking up, Mutlu encountered people who were taking part in the search operation.
He apparently did not know who they were looking for.
To him, the group appeared to be searching for a missing person, and he decided to help.
This is the detail that transformed the incident from an ordinary missing-person report into an extraordinary story.
Mutlu was not simply standing nearby while others searched. According to reports, he actively joined the effort.
He began helping the group look for the person they believed was missing.
The irony is almost impossible to improve upon. A man who had unknowingly become the subject of a search operation encountered the searchers and volunteered to help them complete their task.
From his perspective, he was doing something helpful.
From the rescuers' perspective, another person had joined their efforts to locate someone whose whereabouts remained unknown.
Neither side immediately understood the full situation.
It is easy to imagine how such a misunderstanding could persist for a short time. Search parties can include people who do not know one another, particularly when volunteers and local residents join an organised operation.
Not every participant necessarily knows the missing person personally. Some may have heard about the search only recently and may be helping because they live nearby or want to assist.
As a result, a person joining the group may not immediately attract special attention.
Mutlu could therefore walk alongside the rescuers without anyone instantly recognising him as the missing man.
The search continued, and the man they were looking for was now helping to look for himself.
6. More Than Half an Hour of Searching for Himself
According to accounts published by Turkish media, Mutlu spent more than half an hour participating in the search before realising that he was its target.
For over 30 minutes, he was reportedly part of an operation designed to locate him.
The image is almost comically perfect.
Imagine a group of people moving through an area, looking around and calling out for someone who has disappeared. One of the people walking with them is the missing man, but he believes the group is searching for somebody else.
He looks where the others look. He walks where the others walk. He helps with the task because he thinks it is the right thing to do.
Meanwhile, the searchers continue their work, unaware that the person they need to find is already among them.
The episode is funny precisely because the misunderstanding is so complete.
Everyone is participating in the same activity, but they are interpreting it differently.
Mutlu believes he is helping other people solve a problem. The search party believes it is trying to locate a person who has not been found.
Only one missing piece of information separates the two perspectives: the identity of the person being sought.
The fact that the confusion lasted for more than half an hour made the story even more memorable. It was not simply a momentary misunderstanding in which Mutlu walked up to the rescuers and immediately learned what had happened.
Instead, he reportedly spent a substantial amount of time helping them before the truth became clear.
It is the sort of detail that makes a real incident sound like a carefully constructed comedy sketch.
Yet the search was not staged, and the people involved were not acting out a planned joke. The humour arose from an unexpected situation that developed naturally.
7. The Searchers Finally Call His Name
Eventually, members of the search party began calling out the name of the missing man.
They were looking for Beyhan Mutlu.
Calling a missing person's name can be a practical way to attract attention. Someone who is nearby may hear the call and respond, even if they cannot see the searchers.
In this case, the tactic worked—but not in the way the rescuers had anticipated.
When the group shouted “Beyhan Mutlu,” the man walking among them suddenly recognised the name.
It was his name.
According to reports, Mutlu responded by indicating that he was there.
The moment brought the misunderstanding into the open.
The man everyone had been looking for was standing within the search party, and he had been helping them search for himself.
For the rescuers, the revelation must have been surprising. They had spent time searching for someone they believed was missing, only to discover that the person was already part of their group.
For Mutlu, hearing his name explained the situation that had seemed confusing only moments earlier.
He had not realised that the search was connected to his own disappearance.
Now he understood why people had been calling out his name and why an organised group was searching the area.
The operation had finally found its missing person, but the discovery was far more unexpected than anyone could have imagined.
8. “I'm Here!”—The Unexpected Answer
The response attributed to Mutlu in international reporting was simple: “I am here.”
In another context, those words would have been completely ordinary. If someone calls your name in a crowded room, answering that you are present is a natural response.
But in the middle of a missing-person search, the words carried a completely different meaning.
The rescuers were trying to establish where Mutlu was. They had been calling his name because they hoped he might be nearby.
Instead of hearing a response from someone hidden in the surrounding area, they heard it from a man who had been walking with them.
The person they were searching for had effectively answered a question that nobody realised he was in a position to answer.
The moment also demonstrates why the story spread so quickly.