Blanket Man RIP

Stuff report:

Wellington street personality Ben Hana, more commonly known as “Blanket Man”, has died.

Hana, 54, died in Wellington Hospital at 3.35pm today, a Capital and Coast District Health Board spokeswoman confirmed.

Authorities had become increasingly concerned about his health in the past few weeks.

It was not known what he died from. However, he was suffering medical problems stemming from heavy alcohol use and malnutrition, lawyer Maxine Dixon said.

Many Wellingtonians had a soft spot for Blanket Man, and he did become an unofficial icon. However he was also a serial pest to some shop keepers, and to female passer-bys from time to time.

I recall there was once a Facebook group called something like “I’ve seen Blanket Man’s penis” and there were several thousand members of it. His public page had 25,500 fans, which is a lot.

If I recall, Hana was a successful forestry worker, married with four children. A number of traumatic personal events including a drink driving death led to his downward spiral. For all the fun associated with Blanket Man, he was in fact a very sad and tragic figure.  May he rest in peace now.