There's something strange in the woods of Maine. It's bipedal, walks upright like a
human being, and is occasionally heard to mumble strange vocalizations far,
far away from all civilization. Even stranger still, the creature has an appetite for peanut
butter and has been known to break into remote cabins to steal bread to compliment its favorite
snack with. It's never harmed anyone, but local residents still live in terror of it.
But that's no bigfoot, it's fugitive Christopher Knight, who fled his home in
Massachusetts in 1986 and spent almost thirty years living completely alone in the woods.
The tale of the white phantom, the North Pond Hermit, would only come to light in 2013.
On a fateful night in April of 2013, Knight sneaks towards the site of a summer camp he's become
accustomed to stealing from. He moves silent as a ghost, every square inch of his woods memorized
after 27 years living in the wild. He's careful to step where he knows he'll leave no tracks,
and as he slinks up onto the sleeping summer camp, he's as silent as a ghost.
He uses a screwdriver to force open the door of the camp's dining hall,
knowing that he'd be able to score a few pounds of food from the freezer. The camp
staff had taken to locking the freezer after his numerous raids over the year, but Knight had
discovered a key to the padlock and stolen that on a previous raid. Now the missing food left campers
scratching their heads, seemingly disappearing out of a still-locked freezer all on its own.
This was something he'd been doing for years, Knight has the routine down pat
and uses his expert woodsman skills to move completely unheard by the sleeping campers.
But in the 27 years Knight had spent living in the wild, he'd failed to understand how technology had
evolved. Completely unaware, Knight sets off a motion detector installed by Game Warden
Sergeant Terry Hughes, who'd become obsessed with catching the phantom thief for years.
Hughes sneaks down to the camp and calls the local Sheriff's office for backup,
then surprises Knight as he exits the camp dining hall, bag full of stolen food and candies.
Soon he was in handcuffs and in the back of a sheriff's vehicle,
but still Knight refused to answer any questions. Finally, he began to speak,
admitting that he remained silent at first out of shame for what he'd done. As he spoke though it
became clear that it took effort, almost as if he was struggling to remember how to properly speak.
This was after all only the third human interaction he'd had in almost thirty years.
Months before this a son and father duo had stumbled across his camp, and they had exchanged
only a few words with the two fishermen agreeing to keep quiet about the hermit, who simply wished
to be left alone. Years before that he'd come across a hiker and simply nodded, and said “hi”.
In thirty years, Christopher Knight had spoken less words
with another human being than you use to order your food at a restaurant.
The officers asked Knight how long he'd been in the woods, but Knight was confused.
He had long ago stopped keeping track of the passage of time, and he simply
asked when the chernobyl nuclear disaster had occurred. That was the year he had
taken to living in the woods, 1986. Knight had never seen a cell phone,
never heard of the internet, and blessedly, had no clue what a 'Kardashian' was.
Seeking to avoid being discovered, Knight had set up a secret camp amongst some large
boulders in a strand of trees, then taken the time to carefully camouflage the area.
He went so far as to not light cooking fires, eating his food raw or using a
small propane stove when available, and slept during the day, moving about only at night.
Living in the wild however was not easy for Knight, especially in the notorious Maine winters.
In order to survive, Knight had committed something like 1,000 burglaries, breaking
into homes and cabins- but he only did it when he was sure nobody was around, and he never stole
anything of value. He only took food, propane tanks, clothing, and most importantly: books
to read. Hundreds of them, which were his only companions during his lonely three decades alone.
A background check showed that Knight had no previous criminal record,
but he was the only suspect in something close to 1,000 burglaries reported over the 27 years
that he lived in the woods. He was arrested and transferred to a jail in the state capital,
where he slept in a bed for the first time in almost thirty years. His arrest
was quickly made public, drawing stunned disbelief from many in the local community.
These people had been reporting strange events for decades, some turning to the paranormal for
answers. Flashlights would mysteriously be missing their brand new batteries,
food disappeared from fridges, and brand new propane tanks on cooking grills would, at dawn,
be replaced with old, empty tanks.
Eventually, stories began to take shape and give the mysterious thief an identity: the
North Pond Hermit. Hundreds of people had their own stories to tell, all reporting mysterious
thefts or break-ins. Each story was largely the same- nothing of any real value was ever taken,
only cold weather clothing, batteries, food, occasionally even tools. At a homeowner's
meeting in 2002 one man said how when he was 10 years old all his Halloween candy had been
stolen. Many refused to believe that someone was actually committing all these robberies,
and even when Knight was captured they refused to accept the story as true- but it was.
Knight was charged with multiple counts of burglary, but ultimately was given only a
7 month sentence. He expressed deep regret over his stealing, but had found it a necessary evil
in order to survive in one of the worst winter areas of the entire country. After his sentencing,
even the prosecution agreed that a harsher sentence would have simply been cruel.
While in prison, Knight's condition seemed to deteriorate. Out in the wilds he'd taken cold
sponge baths and carefully groomed his hair in order to avoid suspicion if spotted by hikers
or campers. But while in jail, he'd simply let his beard grow wild and unkempt. The noise of all the
other inmates and the general filthiness of the prison grated at Knight, who was used to unspoiled
nature and complete solitude. He attempted to strike up conversations with other inmates,
but he was so far behind the times that he simply couldn't relate. Movies, books, tv shows- he had
absolutely nothing in common, a man totally out of time, and it showed even in the way that he spoke.
One inmate said that he spoke “like a book”, and after that Knight simply stopped speaking.
During that time Knight struck up a friendship with a reporter for GQ magazine, and the two
exchanged frequent letters. In those letters Knight revealed more details of his time spent in
the wilds, like how he tried to stockpile supplies for the winter months in order to avoid leaving
footprints in the snow for others to discover. He also spoke of the times he almost died- which were
frequent during the bitterly cold Maine winters. In order to cope with not enough food or too
much cold, he would turn to meditation. He also expressed deep regret over his many burglaries.
Knight also talked about his survival strategies. In spring and summer he'd do his best to fatten
up, eating as many calories as possible and imbibing any alcohol he could steal. Much like
a hungry bear, his goal was to fatten up for the hard winters, and he stepped up his burglaries
from April to September. Once the snows began to fall however, he holed up in his hidden campsite,
determined not to leave and give away his presence with fresh bootprints.
Winter in Maine can be tough, and there were many times he feared he'd die from starvation or cold.
Meditation helped, as did his many stolen books which helped keep his
mind off the pain of an empty belly or the freezing cold. As soon as the birds
returned however and their songs filled the woods, he knew that summer was on its way.
After his imprisonment, Knight paid $2,000 in restitution to the victims
that could be identified- many of them by Knight himself. He was also reunited with his family,
and secured a job working with one of his brothers. His two brothers had kept his mother's
spirits alive ever since his disappearance from his Massachusetts home by telling
her that he was likely out west somewhere, and never once hinted that he may be dead.
When he originally disappeared the desperate family hadn't reported him missing,
but had hired a private investigator to try and find him. Knight however
had driven his car up to the deep woods in Maine, then simply left it parked at
the end of a trail with the keys on the dash, and walked into the forest.
But why did Christopher Knight become a hermit for 27 years? When asked, he himself admitted
that he didn't know. When he found his original campsite back in 1986, he said that he simply
felt like this was the first place where he felt at ease, and could give no more reason than that.
Now go check out Russian Family Who Had Never Seen Another Human, or click this other video instead!