Awesome or Awful, you decide

[VAspeedgoat]

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/mar/15/stranger-in-the-woods-christopher-knight-hermit-maine

I can't figure out if I admire this guy for pulling this off or hate him for doing that for 27 years. Can't wait to see the comments.

 

[VAspeedgoat]

Make sure you click on the link that describes his camp.

 

[TimeOnTarget]

If you would have done it without stealing, I'd give him props. Not so much in this case though.

 

[elkantlers]

This reminds me of the Utah mountain man.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/10/utah-mountain-man-troy-james-knapp

I actually saw this guys tracks the day before he was captured. My daughter and I were hunting shed antlers and I came across some fresh boot prints. we had driven in a long ways on an ATV trail that didn't have any track on it so when I saw the boot prints I was surprised. Didn't really think much about it until we saw the news story the next day. He had run into some other shed hunters that recognized him and called our local sheriff. They tracked him out and captured him, but not before he shot at the helicopter. Stupid.

 

[el unit]

A longtime thief. What a POS. I think he lived near North Pond.

 

[Nameless Range]

A thief with low standards of living. I'm not saying what he did is easy , but it's not admirable at all.

 

[TripleJ]

If you would have done it without stealing, I'd give him props. Not so much in this case though.

Exactly. Not very noble to live off the stolen possessions of others.

 

[u1299]

Hard to admire him, he was really nothing more than a loner who needed to steal to survive. Now Dick Proenneke was a loner of sorts who knew how the hell to survive, hunt, fish, cook, garden, build awesome shit, and IMO the most admirable poetic mountain man with a first class personality and demeanor that I've ever seen. I admire Dick Proenneke a ton, not this guy.

 

[F250]

Imagine how many lives Knight disrupted. How many families felt violated after he broke into their homes. How many mothers were so worried that the thief would return while she was there with the children. He is a criminal !! Hopefully the Maine Dept. of Corrections can help him with his quest for solitude : a cell in the segregation unit !! The only outcome that would have been better, is if he had been caught in the act by the right pissed off camp owner !

 

[VAspeedgoat]

You can tell the writer romanticized it a bit. The side article linked in the story paints a different picture though. What baffled me is how the hell he kept the camp hid. In that part of Maine, its not as remote as others. Certainly a hunter came across that camp. Im betting the locals knew and tolerated it. If I read the second article correctly it was a retired policeman from Jersey that caught him. Props for doing it, he was apparently pretty darn good at it

A friend of mine laughed that he bet he was caught in a high speed canoe chase like last of the mohicans.

 

[noharleyyet]

Batsh*t crazy petty creepy burglar....

 

[VAspeedgoat]

The side article says he had nintendo game boys and a tv. That would explain the need for batteries. So much for shunning civilization. How the hell did he not get caught or found at that camp? Somebody had to know where it was.

 

[shootbrownelk]

I'm surprised that he couldn't outrun those 2 fat cops that are escorting him to the slammer. He's nothing but a small time burglar/thief. Like F-250 mentioned, he's lucky he wasn't shot during his escapades.

 

[Little Big Man MT Chris]

27 years in the woods , he worked harder at being a burglar and livin on the down low, than just getting a normal job and working 5 to 6 days a week, like the rest of us. it is hard to believe his camp was never spotted from the air, over the years unless , back in the day the authorities weren't all that motivated to catch him. crazy story, somewhat reminds me of that story about that other kid Christopher McCandless back in the early 90's, that ditched all his ID's, 25,000 bank account, and left mainstream society then wondered around America, until he died in the Alaskan wilderness when he ate the wrong berries. they made a movie about him. wonder if they will do the same with this cat ??

 

[jeremys4]

Ya living off pork and beans less heroic than foraging,hunting and fishing. The beef jerky bandit strikes again.

 

[Northwoods Labs]

I'd say this is downright strange. Imagine being out hunting and running into this dude in his camp. It would give me the creeps

 

[MN Public Hunter]

Pretty crazy...Just another reason I carry a gun into the woods all the time, you never know what or who you will run into. This guy was nothing more than a thief living in the woods.

 

[Steiny]

Utah Mountain Man looks a little like Brett Favre

 

[Southern Elk]

Hard to admire him, he was really nothing more than a loner who needed to steal to survive. Now Dick Proenneke was a loner of sorts who knew how the hell to survive, hunt, fish, cook, garden, build awesome shit, and IMO the most admirable poetic mountain man with a first class personality and demeanor that I've ever seen. I admire Dick Proenneke a ton, not this guy.

I agree. If you guys have never read Dick's book, I would highly recommend it. There's also a good documentary about him with footage that he filmed himself.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0882...+proenneke&dpPl=1&dpID=61S3ZUWlhAL&ref=plSrch

 

[Gerald Martin]

I'll be the third to recommend Dick Proenneke's book and the documentary. Good stuff!