When the woman called William Velasco by another name, he never thought the mistake would change his life.
The 24-year-old butcher was working when his girlfriend came into the store with a friend. The friend mistook William for a co-worker named Jorge Castro, but everyone chalked it up as a coincidence— until a few months later.
William’s girlfriend started a new job working with the friend in question. When she arrived on her first day, she was stunned to see William’s doppelganger, Jorge.
The resemblance was uncanny enough that it remained on her mind for the next six months. After leaving the job, the girlfriend wondered if she should have shown Jorge a picture of William. She texted one to her friend and asked her to show him. Jorge’s heart dropped when he looked at the screen.
Jorge couldn’t stop thinking about the resemblance. He pulled up William’s Facebook account and was startled to see that the similarities didn’t end there.
Not only did Jorge and William share identical features, but they were also both born at the end of December 1988. They also each had fraternal twin brothers— who looked identical to each other too.
The entire thing seemed like some kind of movie, and Jorge approached his brother about it when he got home.
The Castro brothers eventually coordinated a meeting with their doppelgangers. But at first, everyone was apprehensive.
“I was scared, because there were two people who looked exactly like my brother and me, but at the same time, I didn’t know who they were,” Jorge told BBC News.
“My biggest fear was that they could be bad people.”
Now, here’s where things get interesting.
Fraternal twins Jorge and Carlos Castro (shown in the first picture below) have lived their entire lives in Bogota. While fraternal twins William and Wilbur Velasco (shown in the second picture below) have lived 150 miles away, in the rural area of La Paz.
Both sets of twins were born at the same hospital, only one day apart. They believe they’re really two sets of identical twins who were accidentally mixed up at birth.
At one point, they believe they were all placed in the same hospital room, where there was a mix-up with their identification bands. According to the leading expert in twin studies, Nancy L. Segal, it’s the only known case of a double-twin mix-up.
It turns out that Jorge and William are the actual identical twins.
While their “fraternal twin” brothers Wilbur and Carlos are identical twins too.
Physically, it all makes sense. Jorge and William have slender bodies with narrow faces, small mouths, and cheeky smiles. Carlos and Wilbur are bigger and stockier with wider features.
But they’ve also observed other similarities too.”I think the two of us are better dancers,” Carlos told BBC about him and Wilbur. “We are a little bit more egocentric, bigger flirts.”
Since discovering the truth, the men now refer to themselves as four brothers.
They’ve bonded with each other’s families and support each other through whatever comes their way.
“Each one of us is important, and we all need each other,” said Jorge.
Even though the discovery could have been life-shattering, all four have taken the opportunity to build a positive relationship and see the others as brothers, no matter the biological ties.
Hear the incredible story below.
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