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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
Paige Freshwater

Homeless man makes £10.5 million mansion his home after owners abandon it

A homeless man has been living in a $12.5 million (£10.5 million) mansion surrounded by luxury cars after its rightful owners left it abandoned. The 10-bed property is made up of four buildings but locked its doors in 2016 after its owner couldn't keep up with their $60,000 (£50,000) a month mortgage.

But before leaving it, they moved in some of their belongings including an unopened $12,000 (£10,000) shoe collection with Nike Air Max, Chanel and Christian Louboutin. They also left vintage cars including a Mercedes Benz and a Volkswagen Bug parked up at the property. The 27,000 sq foot property was built by a local surgeon who moved into the home with his family while it was under construction.

At least one of the bedrooms has a bed, chair and crystal chandelier still inside (mediadrumimgaes/JeremyXplores)
Urban explorer Jeremy explored the abandoned property in Northeast America (mediadrumimgaes/JeremyXplores)

But tragically, just six months later he and his 15-year-old son were killed in a plane crash.

He left behind a wife and three other children but he had not been paying the premiums on his life insurance, regretfully leading to all financial support being removed from his wife.

The luxury home, which was 90 per cent finished, was seized by the bank within three months, with $9.5 million (£8 million) still owed on it alongside its massive mortgage.

Now, it has become a temporary sleeping ground for a homeless man who would otherwise have to sleep on the streets of Northeast America.

The mansion contains large open spaces and decadent detail (mediadrumimgaes/JeremyXplores)

Filmmaker and photographer JeremyExplores, from Nashville Tennessee, America, ventured out to find the property after hearing rumours about it.

He filmed the location in the freezing cold for 11 hours - and spooked the homeless occupant during his visit.

Jeremy said: "I found the location during a Google Map search. The mystery of this mansion lies in the huge amount of valuables left inside including luxury cars, lavish furniture, expensive designer clothes and so much more.

"I remember the house being so reverberant as the sound of my footsteps echoed throughout the halls like I was in a temple. The smell of each room was different.

"Some had a pungent scent of perfume and soap while others were musty and even stunk of dead rodents.

"The lighting inside the white marble home bounced off every surface evenly and gave it a satisfying glow throughout each room.

The swimming pool and jacuzzi area has become a large, overgrown greenhouse (mediadrumimgaes/JeremyXplores)

"When I arrived, I quickly discovered I wasn’t alone in the mansion. I could hear a homeless man on the second floor moving about after I had apparently awakened him when I had closed the front door.

"I hid from a vantage point and waited for him to finally leave out the back window. I then began my exploration and filming my experience."

Jeremy says his excitement to explore the property turned into "sadness" as he came to understand what happened to the family who bought and transformed it into what was hoped to be a loving family home.

He added: "The man who built this mansion was very accomplished, graduating from one the nation’s finest medical schools, he became a surgeon, a father of four, and even a recreational pilot.

"Having built a thriving empire with nine medical offices, in 2006, he decided it was time to build a dream mansion for his family.

"He was by no means a flashy man but no expense was spared in the elaborate design of this 27,0000 sqft luxury villa.

Luxury cars have been left abandoned at the property (mediadrumimgaes/JeremyXplores)

"Comprised of three stories, not counting the full basement, the white marble mansion has eleven bedrooms, thirteen bathrooms, a visitors quarter, indoor pool, outdoor sports complex, four-car garage, mahogany library and an elevator.

"But as the exploration went on, my excitement shifted into a feeling of sadness and reverence for the family who had lived there and watched their dreams come crashing down along with the plane that killed their father and his son.

"It felt as though I was walking through a memorial of the life and the love that once dwelled there but was forced to leave under the most tragic of circumstances.

"The strangest things I found inside weren’t the luxury cars, the lush furniture, or even the flat screen TVs.

"What I found so strange to be inside were the small items like the designer clothes with the tags still on, or the Dior shoes in the closet, or perhaps the jewellery and mounds of expensive makeup in the bathroom.

"It makes no sense to me why these things were left behind as they could have easily been packed up and transported out of the home whenever the family left."

A luxury shoe collection including Chanel and Christian Louboutin were found at the home (mediadrumimgaes/JeremyXplores)

Through his work, Jeremy tried to capture the beauty of "decay and abandonment" while showing his viewers "how truly wasteful we can be" by flooding our homes with unnecessary items when there's people in the world who have nothing.

"What I love most about exploring is that it's like walking through a museum of someone’s life. Even if you don’t know their story, you can piece together who they were, who they loved, what they valued, and where they came from all from observing what they left behind," he added.

"It's almost like archaeology and I feel like I learn so much about myself and humanity by exploring where we came from, even if these places are now forgotten.

"I was feeling every emotion when I walked away from this exploration. There’s nothing in the world that brings me so much joy and yet sadness to step inside a place like that.

"The insurmountable waste that people produce and the amount of resources that are abandoned every day is mind boggling. This house is an excellent example of this.

"People generally have the same reaction as I did when I first discovered this mega mansion- they respond in absolute amazement and at the same time, sadness for the family and the home that has begun to be consumed by nature.

"It’s beautiful to see people respond with such empathy for the family and shock at the amount of waste of such an amazing home with so much valuables left inside.

"I’ve also had a few people respond with disbelief, claiming these images are staged and the story is fabricated. Each location I publish there’s always a handful of people who can’t wrap their mind around the sad reality that things are in fact abandoned at even the most astronomical scale; whether it be of historical, monetary, or sentimental value."

Do you have a story to share? Email paige.freshwater@reachplc.com.

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