It can be difficult when you lose your home, and sometimes, you wonder what the next step will be. Michael Townsend felt that way as mall developers in Rhode Island took his home.
What do you do when you find yourself in such a situation? You can get depressed, or you can get creative. Townsend decided to get creative.
As an artist, he knew a thing or two about creativity. He also figured out something about the mall, and that was the fact that there was some unused space within the walls.
According to NBC News, it seems as if when the mall was built, they had developed the hidden area for some stores, but then it got overlooked during the construction process. That is where Townsend went, inside those walls and into a 750-square-foot hidden apartment.
The Mirror reports that it took some time for him to clean things out and put furniture in, but eventually, it was a very comfortable apartment. He lived in that space without paying rent, and nobody noticed him for four years.
Eventually, mall security figured things out and put a stop to it. Townsend was evicted and will never be able to step foot in the mall again for his entire life.
It was actually a group of artists known as Trummerkind that built the makeshift apartment. It started as a dare, but Townsend eventually lived in it for four years before they got caught.
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