Oregon comedian escapes coronavirus quarantine in Cambodia, returns to US

OREGON -- An Oregon man who had been stranded in Cambodia because of the coronavirus broke quarantine to get back to the United States.

Frank King was on the Westerdam cruise ship where another passenger tested positive for the virus during a stopover in Malaysia on Saturday.

Once the ship docked in Cambodia, some passengers were put up in a hotel as they awaited their own test results.

But King, who said he had a speaking engagement to get to, decided he couldn’t wait.

“I thought, you know, I’m outta here. I’m going to get my bag. So I walked around the entire hotel, see what security looked like, picked, uh, all that, all the muckety mucks with security at the front gate, all the peons are on back gate," he said. "So out I go to the back gate with my luggage. My plan was if they stopped me and really wouldn’t let me go, I was going to take it back to my room, just remove whatever I couldn’t live without and leave my bags in a room, take my backpack sightseeing."

"But security tried to stop me, and all I just said was, 'No.' There you must leave your bags. No. What is your room number? No, cause I wanted if I got stopped at the airport, I wanted to be able to come back to the room. You must tell me your room. You must leave your bags. No, you must, I go, unless you’re going to arrest me. And I'd already called the Uber."

He said it took three connecting flights, and he was only asked if he had been to China.

He said even though the results weren’t back yet, he’s confident he’s free of the virus since he hasn’t shown any symptoms and was essentially in quarantine for 14 days.

Meanwhile, Cambodian health officials have confirmed 781 passengers from the Westerdam cruise ship tested negative for coronavirus.

It’s unclear if King was one of those passengers.