One’s place of residence is generally fairly predictable. You might live in a house or an apartment in most parts of the Western world. Some people live in trailers, some in tents, and there are people who live in caves and trees out there as well. Still, you can count most of the places you’d consider an actual home on your fingers. But then there are a few people who opted to think outside the box and live in some much more unexpected places.
10. A Teen Lived at AOL Headquarters For Months
We’re going to go back in time to a distant place called AOL. Remember them? Once upon a time, America Online was a big deal on the internet and they sent unwanted CDs to everyone all the time. They also had a big, fancy headquarters in Palo Alto, California. Since tech companies like to cram their offices full of amenities, this place had a gym, a laundromat, sofas, and a cafeteria. Basically, everything you need to survive in a fairly comfortable manner if you chose to live in the building, which is what Eric Simons did.
Simons was 19 when he shacked up at AOL for two entire months in 2011. He ate their food, slept on couches, and spent his days using their resources to start his own company since he wasn’t actually an employee there. Instead, he had enrolled in something called a “start-up incubator program” that was based in the building and allowed him access. When the program ended, he just stuck around.
He managed to cut his living expenses for one month down to $30, and that was just because he went out to get McDonald’s at some point after getting sick of AOL’s cereal and ramen. It was only after a security guard caught him by chance that his living situation came to an end.
9. A Man Trying to Avoid Covid Lived at O’Hare for 3 Months
The Covid-19 pandemic shook up the living conditions of a lot of people. Shelter in place, work from home, you name it, people did it. Tons of us got to be a lot more familiar with our own homes as a result of that fear of going out into the world. But it didn’t exactly work that way for Aditya Singh. At the height of the pandemic, Singh was desperately afraid of catching the virus, so he stayed right where he was. But he was at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago.
For three months Singh managed to stay relatively hidden away in a restricted part of the airport. He had arrived on a flight in October 2020 and wasn’t caught until midway through January.
He was moving around with a purloined security badge and, with the aid of a face mask, presumably no one noticed that he wasn’t the man he was claiming to be. Other passengers gave him food while he was there.
Singh had no criminal record and had been in America getting a master’s degree. He was meant to be returning to India when he was caught. In October 2021, a judge found him not guilty of any felony charges since he was only in the secure area because he had gotten off his original flight there, and had not really violated any rules beyond using an ID that wasn’t his thanks to his fear of leaving.
8. A Man Lived in his Office for 500 Days
You know that old saying “you should work to live, not live to work?” Somehow, a man known only as Terry K. got that mixed up in his head and ended up living at work. And he did it for 500 days.
Writing his story for Salon, the man detailed how he rented out his actual Venice Beach apartment and then took up residence under his desk in an office building. He’d wake up before anyone arrived, then go to the gym and shower. Sometimes he’d even come back a little late to make it look like he’d genuinely been commuting.
Why would anyone do such a thing? Money. Terry was working 60 hours a week and never at his apartment, anyway. He had student loans and hospital bills and was getting nowhere. So he saved money by renting his place out and just living in his cubicle.
With average rent in the area at the time costing $1,300 a month, he was able to save $20,000. Also, hundreds of hours of commuting time. So why did he stop? The company went under and he was laid off.
7. A Squatter Lived in a Church Attic for 3 Years
In horror movies, it’s not unheard of for something or someone to be creeping around in an attic and it’s entirely believable when you think about it. Most people rarely go to their attic. There’s often easy access to it and potentially a lot of furnishings and other items to keep you busy. That’s potentially part of the reason William Baker took up residence in the attic of St. Ann Roman Catholic Church in Arlington, Virginia. And because it was a church attic and not the attic of a home, it was even less well-trafficked, which allowed Baker to live there for a remarkable three years.
Baker was homeless and had managed to set up a nice space for himself with clothes, a guitar and a cooler that he stocked with food he stole from the church. In fact, it seemed like missing food was the only clue anyone had that something was wrong for those three years, but it certainly wasn’t enough to convince anyone that they had a squatter.
Baker accessed the attic through ceiling tiles. He’d use a ladder to climb up, then pull the ladder up after so no one knew. It wasn’t until a repairman visited at an unexpected hour and heard noises upstairs that anyone was clued in. Police were called and Baker was charged with trespassing.
6. The People Living in Walmarts
Despite their history of questionable business practices, there’s no denying that Walmart is a big deal in the retail world. They made over $141 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2022. It’s no wonder since the stores sell basically everything you could ever need. For that reason, maybe it’s no surprise that more than one person has tried to live in one.
In 2013, a 14-year-old took up residence in a Texas Walmart, though he only managed to stay there for a few days. He built hiding places behind things like strollers and stacks of toilet paper so people in the store couldn’t see him when they closed up shop for the night. He also changed his clothes day to day to avoid looking suspicious.
As you might expect, he was eating food taken from the grocery section of the story and, in a touch of gross ingenuity, he chose to wear diapers so no one would catch him going to the bathroom.
Elsewhere in Texas a man was found living in Walmart’s ducts, though no word was given on how long he’d been there. Suffice it to say that a Texas Walmart must be a very homey place.
5. A Woman Secretly Lived in a Stranger’s Closet for a Year
What do you have in your closet right now? Apparently, a lot of people have hundreds of dollars worth of unworn clothing in there. Maybe you have some shoes or sentimental items as well. But can you say with 100% certainty that you do not have a stranger living in there? And before you say “of course,” know that at least one person has found a stranger living in their closet in the past.
In 2008, a woman in Japan was arrested after living for an entire year in a stranger’s closet. He was suspicious when food began to go missing, so he installed some security cameras to monitor his place while he was out.
Police came and found all the doors and windows locked, then searched around and found her curled up on a shelf in the closet. She said she sneaked in a year earlier when he’d left the place unlocked and had been there ever since.
4. A Student Spent a Year Living in a Yale Ventilation Shaft
Let’s go way back to 1964 for this one when it seems like student housing was as much of a hassle as it is today. In this case, a student at Yale had been living for seven whole months in a ventilation shaft at the school.
Allan Kornfeld used brick-patterned wallpaper to hide his entrance. He kept warm in the winter with an electric blanket. His living space was an air shaft that supplied ventilation to squash courts and was only four feet wide, but 40 feet long with a 10 foot ceiling.
He ate on campus because his tuition covered meals; it just didn’t cover housing, and he didn’t have enough to rent a place on his own. He had an off campus mailing address and had friends take any phone calls for him.
3. A Redditor posted a Tutorial on Living in a Storage Unit
Storage units have been around for ages but got a big boost in the early 2010s with shows like Storage Wars. Suddenly, they were a big deal and for more than just finding treasures. People started using them as homes.
Back in 2017, a Reddit user known as 007craft detailed how he made a storage unit a home for a couple of months. The monthly fee was just $200, so it was clearly better than rent and it already had all of his possessions in it.
He had a bed, a TV, toaster oven and hot plate, as well as a fridge. He ran power cables and even an antenna to boost his cell signal, then just had to worry about keeping it down so no one would notice him.
One version of the story has the man moving out on his own once he found a real apartment, but U-Haul says they actually caught him and kicked him out.
2. A Man Lived in Veterans Stadium for 3 Years
Once upon a time, Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia was one of the most famous pro sports stadiums in America. It had been home to both the Philadelphia Phillies and the Philadelphia Eagles. According to Tom Garvey, it was also home to him.
Garvey was a parking lot supervisor at the stadium in 1979. Unmarried and with few responsibilities beyond word, he started sleeping in an unused concession stand and converted it into an apartment in which he lived for about three years. Since he was always at work anyway, no one questioned why he stuck around so much.
He made him home on the 200 level by Gate D. If anyone opened the door, all they would see were boxes. But if you walked down a passageway to his 60 foot by 30 foot place upholstered in Astroturf, you’d find a fridge, bed, sink, stereo and more amenities that made it liveable.
1. A Man Built a Secret Room in a Rhode Island Mall
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSd8oLUKjXU
Taking the record for the longest run in a place where no one should be able to live is Michael Townsend, who racked up four years inside a shopping mall, though he shared duties with several friends.
The actual process is as fascinating as it is unbelievable. They built an actual room with cinder-block walls and a utility door for access. Inside, they made a 750-square foot apartment. It even had a china cabinet. The only thing missing was running water since they couldn’t install plumbing, but since it was in a mall, they were never far from a bathroom.
The space they used had basically been a design flaw. The floor plan of the mall used all the surrounding space, so the apartment was built in empty space.The crew had plans to install wood floors and build a second bedroom, among others, but mall security figured it out and busted them.
Townsend was charged with trespassing, and the mall banned him for life.