A man has shared the fascinating story of how he secretly lived inside a shopping centre for four years after spotting a hidden room in the building.
Michael Townsend has seen a huge reaction online after the content creator was able to make a home for himself inside the retail complex for some time.
Speaking about the experience, Michael shared how he had been in need of a new apartment when he was inspired by a radio advert talking about how great it would be to live in a mall.
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Giving him the unusual idea, the advert had sparked a memory of jogging past the newly constructed shopping centre near his home four years before, and how he had spotted an unused room between stores.
Initially seeing the strange room in the Providence Place Mall in Rhode Island in 1999, a further inspection found that that the room seemed to only exist due to the purposely designed areas around it.
As his actual home came under threat from developers, Michael made the bold decision to set up a secret home in the mall space, reports the Daily Star.
On his website, he said: “During the Christmas season of 2003 and 2004, radio ads for the Providence Place Mall featured an enthusiastic female voice talking about how great it would be if you (we) could live at the mall.
“The central theme of the ads was that the mall not only provided a rich shopping experience but also had all the things that one would need to survive and lead a healthy life.”
Townsend revisited the room he had spotted back in 1999 and discovered that it remained unused so he decided to see if he and his friends could in fact live at the mall.
He said: “The new plan wasn’t just to live in the mall for just a week, it was now simply to live in the mall.”
The 750-square-foot apartment was created in 2003. It was furnished with a sofa and a PlayStation. They didn’t have running water, though, so the gang had to use the centre’s public toilets.
According to NBC News , Townsend and his pals also built a breeze block wall and utility door to keep it hidden.
They lived in relative peace for four years before the plan began to unravel. Before being caught, Townsend had plans to install wood flooring, a second bedroom and a kitchen.
Eventually, security guards found the secret property.
One day, the artists, who had sworn not to speak about the apartment with anyone else, found their utility door kicked in and their PlayStation, art and photo album gone.
In response, they took extra precautions, including only using the apartment at night.
But little did they know that the security guards had been responsible for the break-in and had been staking it out ever since, ready to pounce on its inhabitants.
And that's exactly what they did when they spotted Townsend one afternoon.
Townsend was consequently charged with trespassing. He insisted that “the entire endeavour was done out of a compassion to understand the mall more and life as a shopper.”
He was given probation by a judge but was banned from the mall for life.
The Providence Journal reported that only Townsend and his now ex-wife Adriana Young identified themselves as being mall dwellers.
But he remained in touch with the rest of the artists who were involved in the ruse.
After all these years, Townsend, who still lives in the area, said: “I really wish I could go back.”
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