Frank Abagnale said his five years of fraud and forgery between the ages of 16 and 21 started as a game that became serious.

A former outlaw-turned-FBI aid, Abagnale spoke about his life to a packed audience at Schwab Auditorium Tuesday night.

He told the audience of how he flew more than one million miles disguised as a pilot, worked as a doctor and passed the Louisiana bar exam in eight weeks, all before turning 22.

Abagnale, whose life was portrayed in the 2002 movie Catch Me If You Can, served time in prisons in France, Sweden and the United States.

"The French prison was the worst," said Abagnale, who lost about 90 pounds while imprisoned there. "When I go to France now, I don't even jaywalk."

One of Abagnale's earliest crimes was to hang a sign outside of a deposit box saying the box was broken and to leave all deposits with the guard on duty -- which was Abagnale wearing a rented costume.

"I was the only one sitting there thinking, 'How the hell can it be out of order? It's a box,'" Abagnale said.

Abagnale also took deposit checks from a bank and encoded them for his account. He then returned the slips to the bank, and everyone who used them deposited their money into his account.

After the banks, Abagnale moved to the air. He acted as a Pan American World Airways pilot, forging an airline ID and catching flights on planes of other airlines.

"I never flew Pan Am," Abagnale said, adding he didn't want older Pan Am employees to question his identity.

Pan American World Airways estimated Abagnale flew on more than 250 flights to 26 countries.

When he learned the FBI was catching on to him, Abagnale retired to Atlanta for a while where he worked as a resident supervisor at a local hospital despite the fact that he lacked medical knowledge and education.

Abagnale later explained that his life of crime began when he learned his parents were getting divorced. When asked by the court which parent he wanted to live with, Abagnale ran out of the room and would never see his father again.

"Divorce is very devastating," Abagnale said. "Obviously there was no choice, so I ran."

Kreg Henritzy (junior-marketing) said he enjoyed hearing the first-hand account of what was portrayed in the film about his life.

"He gave a lot of advice and it was interesting to hear him clarify events from the movie," Henritzy said.

Other students said they were impressed by how much he had done in his life.

"It was awesome I didn't realize he did some many things," said Sandra Letenzi (junior-supply chain and information systems). "He's a great public speaker and has a good philosophy on life."

Abagnale served four years of his 12-year sentence and finished the last 8 years working with the FBI. Abagnale has now worked for the FBI for 34 years and said he is not proud of his past. He said he refuses a salary and benefits because he is repaying his debt to the government. He said he turned down three pardons from U.S. presidents because he regrets his past actions.

He said if he were as brilliant as people thought, he would not have broken the law to survive.

"I always knew I'd get caught, I'd be a fool not to," Abagnale said. "The law may sleep but it never dies."