The “Rambo” wannabe nabbed in Pakistan hunting for Osama bin Laden with a pistol and sword has lived a life fraught with screwball misadventures that include breaking into a meatpacking plant to “save” workers from the grinder and getting shipwrecked in Mexico, where he was accused of spying.
Gary Brooks Faulkner has “always been one of these save-the-world people,” Terri Faulkner, who used to be married to his brother, told The Post from her Pleasant Grove, Ala., home.
“Everybody loves him. He’s not perfect. And probably not completely normal, to be honest.”
Gary, 50, was busted Sunday in a forest of northern Pakistan as he prepared to cross into Afghanistan to track and try to kill al Qaeda boss bin Laden — his seventh such mission to the region.
The bearded Bible toter — who was once a Cub Scout and became a devout Christian in prison — has told authorities that God told him in a dream to avenge 9/11.
American consular officials met yesterday in Islamabad with Faulkner, who remains in Pakistani custody. He has not been charged.
Faulkner, of Greeley, Colo., has a habit of launching audacious undertakings — even after developing a hereditary kidney disorder that requires dialysis.
In the late 1980s, “he worked at a meatpacking plant” in Colorado, Terri Faulkner said. “They had illegal Mexicans working there who kept disappearing. I said, ‘Gary, they come here, work for a while, and then they go home. They don’t tell you, ‘I’m going back to Mexico, you’ll never see me again.’ ”
“He said, ‘They’re putting the Mexicans in the meat!’
“So one night on his day off, he dressed up like Rambo and jumped the fence to investigate. Of course, he got arrested for that because they found him with a big knife in his pocket. But these were guys he worked with that he loved.”
Gary’s brother, Dr. Scott Faulkner, told The Post, “When you hear some of his stories, you say, ‘No way.’ But he has had adventures that most people dream about.”
Seven years ago, Scott said, Gary decided to buy a boat and teach himself to sail in San Diego.
There, he launched the vessel and promptly drew the attention of the harbor patrol, which noticed he did not have a life vest or other basic essentials, Scott said.
Gary managed to elude the patrol and moved out to the open water. He then drifted for 23 days, surviving on some provisions, fish and rainwater, Scott said. “He was having a great time.”
The boat beached in Mexico, where Gary hiked into a town and came upon a local fiesta.
When the cops arrived, they suspected Gary of being a spy — but ended up letting him walk free. He then hitchhiked back to San Diego.
“That’s why I never worry about Gary. The guy can survive,” said his brother.
Gary’s ex-wife, Maxine Faulkner, told The Post, “I left him because he was in and out of jail. ”
He’d get out, do good, then do something stupid. It was about four or five times, usually theft.
“This was in the ’80s. He’s the type of guy who’d give you the shirt off his back, but then he’d do these things that weren’t right, and I didn’t want to raise [our son] Robert that way.”
“He used to dress up like Rambo,” she said. “The hair was long and crazy, and bandannas, and sleeveless tank-tops.”
Gary’s son, Robert, said of his bin Laden manhunt, “Yeah, it’s crazy, but if he’d been successful, he would be a national hero.”
“My grandma [Gary’s mother, Arlyne] said she thought he was going to go, and this was his way of going his own way,” Robert said.
Additional reporting by Rebecca Rosenberg in Fort Collins, Colo., and Mohsin Abbas in Islamabad, Pakistan