• From a retired Boeing 727 to ¬¬¬¬¬¬the insides of an IKEA store, we count ten unusual
places people actually lived!
10 – In a Makeshift Cave, • Yosue Joel Rios longed for the days when
man lived off the land and slept in caves.
So to get back to his ancestral roots, he dug out a fifteen-foot cave in a Fairfax park.
But while Yosue was travelling back through time, the rest of us were still here in the
present – where vandalising a public park is considered a felony.
• Virginian police charged him with destruction of public property, but they must have been
impressed with Yosue’s effort.
He’d carved out steep steps which led all the way down into his sweet split-level pad.
One cavern was the bedroom while the other was an entertaining space.
• The County officials sealed the cave up, filling it with dirt, but Yosue became a local
celebrity.
People admired him so much that they created a GoFundMe account to fund his next expedition.
9 – Inside a Boeing 727, • A woman bought a decommissioned Boeing
727 and turned it into a stunning waterfront home.
While on the market for a unique home, Joanne Ussary used her connections with a local airport
to buy the retired aircraft, which had room for 189 of her closest friends.
• It cost her just two thousand dollars, leaving her plenty of money for a few modernising
renovations.
Her airplane home had three bedrooms, living and dining rooms, a kitchen and laundry, and
a master bedroom with a personal Jacuzzi in the cockpit.
• Ussery christened her new home ‘Little Trump’ in honour of Donald Trump’s similar-modelled
$16-million corporate jet.
8 – A Shopping Mall, • Many people have fantasies about spending
the night at the mall.
All that unguarded candy, all those games and toys…
Michael Townsend decided to live the dream by living in a mall for four whole years.
• In 2003 he built a secret pad in an unused part of Providence Place Mall’s parking
garage.
He used the space for entertaining family and friends and claimed the whole thing was
done ‘out of a compassion to understand the mall and life as a shopper’.
• Michael was careful not to disrupt mall security – probably because he wanted to
keep his public art project off their radar.
He and his friends called themselves ‘the Trummerkind’, which is German for ‘children
of the ruins’.
Or they did until Michael was eventually caught in 2007.
He was sentenced to six months probation – officially for criminal trespassing.
7 – A Transparent House, • If you thought contestants in the Big
Brother house had no privacy, check out this completely transparent Tokyo home.
• It’s called ‘House NA’ and it came about because the mad geniuses at Sou Fujimoto
Architects wanted to replicate the homes of Japan’s ancient tree-dwelling ancestors.
• While it gets more than its share of sunlight, the downside to this completely see-through
three-storey home is that anyone can see in at all times!
Although I guess if you’re a nudist or an exhibitionist then there’s no downside at
all!
6 – Ex-Girlfriend’s Attic, • A woman went to investigate some strange
noises in her attic and found her ex-boyfriend from twelve years ago secretly living there!
• Tracy, a single mum of five kids, assumed a wild animal was poking around.
She definitely didn’t expect to find her thieving, drug-abusing ex living right there
under her heater.
• Tracy’s ex had pent the last twelve years in prison and sent Tracy hundreds of
love letters during his stay in the big house.
Apparently he couldn’t grasp that she didn’t want him in her life, so he figured his best
shot at reconciliation was to show up unannounced in her attic in the middle of the night.
He definitely gets women…
5 – In the Woods, • A hermit in Maine lived in a tent in the
woods for twenty-seven years.
Christopher Knight – or ‘the North Pond Hermit, as he’s better known – was arrested
in 2013 for committing literally thousands of minor thefts.
He took food, clothing and tools from nearby camps to survive.
• In those twenty-seven years, Christopher only spoke to one single person!
And he was so removed from civilised life that he hadn’t bought anything since the
mid-1980s.
He lived in a small tarp-covered tent and used a propane stove to cook his meals.
• When he was captured, he was transported to Kennebec County Jail where he spent his
first night indoors in almost 10,000 days.
Are you listening, Yosue Joel Rios?
This is how you live off the land!
4 – A Seafort, • If you’re tired of the rat race or looking
for a quirky holiday destination, try this old abandoned WWII sea fort, the Prinicipality
of Sealand.
This unusual place is considered the smallest sovereign state and is an unofficial micro-nation.
• But maybe don’t go there if you’re the kind of person that likes to ya’know,
move around freely.
This is because only 550 square metres of the Principality of Sealand is inhabitable,
and it’s kind of a isolated area at sea, a whole thirteen kilometres off the coast
of Great Britain.
• Still, if intimate communities are your thing, you’ll love Sealand’s official
passports, currency and, err, football team?
They also recently got hooked up with a phone line and internet connection.
So there you go.
Hours of fun.
3 – On a School Bus, • Most kids ride the bus home from school,
but for this eleven- and five-year-old brother and sister the school bus was home.
• The pair had been secretly living in a rundown school bus ever since their dipshit
parents were sent to jail for embezzling money from hurricane victims.
They had little food and weren’t enrolled in school.
A concerned postman spotted them and had the good sense to notify child welfare.
• Authorities who found them said the girl’s hair was matted like a stray dog’s.
It turned out they were meant to be living with their aunt, but she had been neglecting
them to work long hours.
They’ve since been reunited with their parents.
2 – A Hobbit Hole, • Simon Dale is such a huge Lord of the
Rings fan that he single-handedly built his family a Hobbit house so they could experience
life in the Shire.
• The amazing eco-house was built in just three months in the middle of some idyllic
Welsh woodlands.
It uses solar panels to generate electricity and water is collected from a nearby spring.
• It’s peaceful, self-sustaining and is the perfect place to raise a family – that
is until the day a wizard shows up unannounced and invites you on an adventure…
1 – IKEA, • IKEA’s a magical place beloved by all
food and furniture lovers – at least when it’s not destroying relationships.
Who hasn’t dreamt of spending the night there, chowing down meatballs and catching
Zs in a nice comfy display bed?
Twelve-year-old Chinese boy Peng Yijian sure has , because he spent an entire week living
in an IKEA store.
• After a fight with his mum about homework, Peng decided to run away to the Ikea store,
he survived by eating free food samples and slept like a king on the many display beds.
• Eventually police tracked him down, but by that time he was so weak he had to be put
on an intravenous drip.
Peng’s mother apologised to police and promised to never force her son to do homework again.
Not that I’m suggesting you should, but if you’re gonna run away from home this
is totally how you should do it.