Hermit caught after 27 years in Maine woods

[whitewind]

Hermit caught after 27 years in Maine woods

Christopher Knight, who disappeared aged 19, lived by stealing food and supplies from woodland camps in Maine, say police

The woodland camp where Christopher Knight is believed to have lived for up to 27 years.

Photograph: Reuters/Maine police

A man who lived as a hermit for decades in a makeshift camp in the woods and may be responsible for more than 1,000 burglaries for food and other supplies has been caught by a determined game warden who was fed up with the thefts.

Christopher Knight, 47, was arrested when he tripped a surveillance sensor while allegedly stealing food from a camp for people with special needs in a small town in the far north-eastern state of Maine.

Authorities on Tuesday found the campsite where they believe Knight, known as the North Pond Hermit in local lore, lived for up to 27 years. Knight's living quarters included a tent covered by tarps suspended between trees, a bed, propane cooking stoves and a battery-run radio, which he used to keep up with the news and listen to talk radio and a rock station, authorities said.

Some residents say they have been aware of the hermit for years, often in connection with break-ins. During questioning after his arrest Knight said that the last verbal contact he had with another person was during the 1990s, state trooper Diane Vance said. "He passed somebody on a trail and just exchanged a common greeting of hello and that was the only conversation or human contact he's had since he went into the woods in 1986."

Christopher Knight, 47, known as the North Pond Hermit, after his arrest.

Photograph: Reuters/Maine police

He was so well known to some summer cottage owners that they left food out for him so he wouldn't break in during the colder months. But others were hardly aware of the hermit living within their midst without detection since 1986. "I was born in 1987. He was there before I was," Rome resident Melissa Witham said outside her home.

Paul Anderson, a town councillor, acknowledged local talk about a man living alone in the woods. "I've lived in the town for 32 years and I've never, ever met the guy," Anderson said.

Since vanishing from his Maine home for no apparent reason and setting up camp when he was about 19, Knight sustained himself on food stolen from dozens of cottages, but his favourite target was the Pine Tree Camp, where game warden Sergeant Terry Hughes, who had been trying to nab Knight for years, set up a surveillance alarm, authorities said.

Knight was caught on Tuesday as he left the camp's kitchen freezer with a backpack full of food, they said. "He used us like his local Wal-mart," said Harvey Chesley, the camp's facilities manager.

Ron Churchill, owner of Bear Spring Camps in Rome, said employees maintaining his camp's lakeside cabins had seen the man thought to be the hermit in the past. Churchill said his business has lost propane containers to thefts, the latest of which were discovered on Wednesday.

Despite Maine's harsh winters, during which temperatures sometimes struggle to get above -12.2C (10F) for a week at a time, Knight stayed at his encampment and avoided making campfires so he wouldn't be detected, and he used the propane only for cooking, Hughes said. To stay warm he would bundle himself in multiple sleeping bags, authorities said.

When caught Knight was clean-shaven and still using his aviator-style spectacles from the 1980s.

[Amazonian]

Wow. You would think he would have built a better dwelling though, like a hut or something, but I guess that would be more detectable.

I wonder what his punishment will be? If they put him jail, I reckon he will neck himself.

He did alright living off campers for 27 years hey, lol.

[whitewind]

Its such an open camp, its amazing no-one found it for 27 years!

Wonder who lives in the National Parks around Australia? There are so many places it would be easy to hide.

[PositiveHAL]

Wonder who lives in the National Parks around Australia? There are so many places it would be easy to hide.

the indigenous folk for 60 odd thousand years

[waterboy 2.0]

http://www.mountainhuts.com.au/solitary_mans_hut.htm

Edited March 21, 2017 by waterboy 2.0

[Francois le Danque]

Wonder who lives in the National Parks around Australia?

me in the future, gods willing

[SkyWalker]

Wow, thats sonds like a f@#ked up acid trip he was on, just give him a pension and send him back to the woods, he can then buy his food and stop bothering the locals, community service will not only help him repay his debt to the special needs facility he stole from but help to reengage into a normal life in society, under the care of a guidance counceler im sure he will be able to one day engage in a normal life, im preety sure thats how i see this playing out in court, he will go for the mentally ill clause if they try to go to hard on him

[Thelema]

there was a guy like that in the hills region of perth.

they used to call him "dirty harry"

apparently to get water and he had one thong.

the last time I saw him was 1990.

I've been trawling though the bush looking for him, but I could never find him.

Might give a ring to the local historian.

[Distracted]

Smarter than the average bear!

[bℓσωηG]

poor bastard hope theyre not going to lock him in a cell now , he should have got into gardening , hunting and fishing instead of stealing food and hed still be free... amazing length of time to be doing that especially in the states..

[CβL]

Here's a few more little tidbits: http://listverse.com/2013/04/11/10-modern-day-hermits/

[Fenris]

I was in California in early 2001 and my friend & I picked up a couple of hitch hikers in her Celica, it was a tight squeeze. Anyway the 2 guys we picked up had been living a sort of hermit life although I think they were part of a small hermit like community living away in the hills, one of them, and Northern Irish guy had been trapping animals for food and living fairly wild for about 20 years, they got by on small amounts of money which they bought rice & whiskey with. When we picked them up they were on their way home (they couldn't hitchhike to where they wanted, so they turned around and went back), we dropped them off at the ocean on the way to Hearst Castle, they were going to a particular beach where the waves were eroding the mountain and washing out chunks of jade which they would collect & sell to a jeweler. I got the impression they were both hiding out to some degree, the older guy possibly from a knee capping, and the younger one (who was only 21) from reality. It was an interesting couple of hours in the car with them.

[Amazonian]

I keep thinking 'hermit CRABS' when i see the thread title...even though i know what the thread is about, but my brain must be trained to think 'crabs' after it sees the word 'hermit' ?! lol.. (i over use the word LOL... I need a new one) .

[gtarman]

That dude has a serial killer face.

[Amazonian]

^ I was waiting for someone else to think (say) that. honestly.

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

I have the same glasses as him! Yeeeew!

Anyways, what skills this guy can teach me! (I ready know how to steal and pillage, I'm talking the going uncovered for 27yrs skills!)

[Roopey]

That dude has a serial killer face.

They say he was living off stealing food, but he was really stealing people, and they were the food.

[whitewind]

The guy is squinting against the harsh, unnatural light of a jail cell, with glasses on that probably aren't the right prescription any more. He is seriously unhappy because he had spent 27 years avoiding people and now he is being forced to deal with some (probably unfriendly) park ranger who has been chasing him for years. He has been torn away from a life he chose 27 years ago, and may never see his home again.

I think I would look like a serial killer too.

Edited April 12, 2013 by whitewind

[CβL]

He's obviously extremely upset - he's about to cry, or already has been crying (look at his lip curling). But the fact that he's been listening to the radio - that changes a lot I think. It's filled his head with what's current - he's not like some guy who's been totally cut off.

Edited April 13, 2013 by CβL

[Auxin]

That dude has a serial killer face.

The guy had been listening to American!!! talk radio for 27 years.

Have you ever heard that bigoted hate filled trash?

If anyone listens for 27 weeks they get the serial killer face, its a small miracle they didnt find a necklace of human fingers on the guy.

[Thelema]

I long for the days where hermits and trolls were part and parcel of society. There's still some of it going on in India.

I could easily have gone that way myself..

[PositiveHAL]

in the victorian era, wealthy estate owners used to house hermits on their property, it was considered very fasionable to have an eccentric living down the back wood

[PositiveHAL]

^im sure many of us would like that job if it was still around today!

[Francois le Danque]

in the victorian era, wealthy estate owners used to house hermits on their property, it was considered very fasionable to have an eccentric living down the back wood

Hagrid!

[whitewind]

Plenty of trolls around on the internet that's for sure. Wouldn't know where to find the hermits though