realistically, what happens if u overstay 90 days?

[Charlie Hershawn]

i've looked at a few boards and cant seem to find an answer outside of the extreme "they will throw you out on the spot" reply. before i actually heard that you cant stay over 90 days in a 6th month period TOTAL, i was all set on backpacking for apx. 4 months. who exactly catches you, a police officer or a train official? where would one get "caught"? i plan on flying in and out of lhr and will have with me a roundtrip ticket. my plan was to end my backpacking in either sardinia or athens (would just fly into london from there) so im wondering if i get caught, would it be when im about to leave a schengen country to a non schengen country or something else?

[finkle55]

I just got back from a 4 month excursion to europe and had no problem with staying past the 90 limit. In fact when entering most countries didn't even stamp my passport. so there was not even proof that I had been there. Short of having a visa that has explicit dates I wouldn't worry too much about it.