Photo: Reuters
Update: Patrick adds, “Maine crime writer is dubious about the veracity of a great deal of that Maine ‘hermit’ story.”
More of the story has come out about the Maine hermit that David blogged about on Wednesday. When Christopher Knight was 19, he abandoned his plans (documented in his high-school yearbook) to become a “computer technician” and moved to the Maine woods. That was 27 years ago. Since then, he’s been living as a hermit in a secret camp supplied by high-end food and camp-gear he burgled from other campsites, cottages, homes, and “Pine Tree Camp, a facility for special needs people.” After decades of evading locals, he has finally been arrested and is awaiting trial. One local cottage owner, Dave Proulx, says he experienced “more than a dozen break-ins,” he attributes to Knight, and says Knight “was a fussy eater,” who “never made off with meat that wasn’t in its original packaging,” and claims that he once chased Knight to a dock, only to lose Knight in a daring canoe escape.
Authorities filled two pickup trucks on Thursday as they took apart Knight’s camp, later displaying what they were calling evidence for local folks to sort through to try to recover their stolen goods.
There were several Nintendo Game Boys and a wristwatch, along with shovels, rakes, coolers, cooking gear, a coffee pot and toilet paper.Authorities said Knight used logs on the ground as a makeshift commode, and at one point attached an antenna to a treetop so he could get reception on a battery-powered TV in his tarp-covered camp.
Christopher Knight: inside the Maine hermit’s lair [AP]