Warren Gregory, also known as Flowerbike man, has lived in Amsterdam with his wife Michelle since 2018. Since his arrival, he has been decorating the city with his beautiful flowerbikes. Now, he is being told to leave.
According to Het Parool, Gregory was arrested for an unknown reason on August 5. He was then taken to Ter Apel when it was found he didn’t have the correct residence permit.
Why wasn’t it correct? Because Gregory and his wife live on a houseboat and don’t have an official home address.
Suddenly, the man who was heralded as a “real Amsterdammer” during the city’s 750th anniversary found himself in trouble with the IND.
Must leave the country by October 6
While Gregory is no longer being held in Ter Apel, he has been told that he and Michelle must leave and return to Florida by October 6.
Speaking with at5.nl, Gregory says that he feels “sad, ashamed, and [that] I failed. I wasn’t able to provide, and that hurts.”
He tells the outlet that all the work he has done throughout his time here was above board, the issue was that lack of a registered address — a pain that many internationals have dealt with when trying to find accommodation here.
“I could never afford to have a registered address. I have a social security number, a bank account, and all the work I have done is registered. None of it was undeclared; everything was documented,” he says.
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According to at5.nl, this lack of official address along with the fact that he once failed to report to the IND and had a break between his residence permits, was enough for the IND to boot him out of the country.
However, he isn’t painting the IND as purely evil. “They gave me time and again to get my affairs in order. I can’t really say anything bad about it, because you can look at it from two sides.”
He mostly worries for his wife, Michelle, who suffers from sever epilepsy. Once they return to the US, they are at the mercy of the US health system.
As he tells at5.nl, “Healthcare in the Netherlands is much better than in the United States.”
But Amsterdammers want him to stay
While the IND may be telling Warren Gregory to go, many Amsterdammers are petitioning for him to stay. A current petition already has nearly 800 signatures.
According to Gregory, Flowerbike Man will stay. “He dies here,” he says. “Warren is going to go back to Florida with his wife and be happy.”
If you would like to sign the petition, you can find it here.
You are forgetting to say that he is a convicted criminal for threatening, stealing and harassing.
Let him go home and apply in the correct way