【明報專訊】美國一名男子隱居山林接近30年，只靠打劫附近度假營地維生，他涉嫌與逾千宗盜竊案有關，周二再度犯案時當場被捕。這些年來這名怪客東躲西藏，幾乎與世人隔絕，自稱對上一次與人溝通已經是接近20年前的事。
47歲的奈特（Christopher Knight）是緬因州人，19歲時突然離家出走，往州內羅馬市（Rome）市郊山上紮營，就這樣住了27年。他住在一個帳篷之中，上面有塊四角綁在樹幹 的防水布覆蓋，有一張牀和一個液化石油氣爐，一部收音機則用來讓他收聽新聞和搖滾音樂節目。奈特一直神出鬼沒，有居民稱自己在當地生活了32年都未見過 他。他被捕後更向警察稱，對上一次與別人對話，已是1990年代的事。
為免遭人發現，他除了煮食以外從不生火，連嚴冬落雪時也寧願只多穿幾個睡袋禦寒。相信這些年來他靠偷附近度假營地的食物和物資維生，但營地一直苦無證據逮捕他，只好主動給他一些食物，以免他入冬後爆格。
營地經理嘆道：「他就當我們是他的本地超級市場！」可是天網恢恢，他周二終於落網。有營地特意設立巡查隊和監視裝置，終於在他再偷入營地，將廚房雪櫃食物塞滿背囊、準備逃走時逮個正着，拿他送官究治。
Christopher Knight: inside the Maine hermit's lair
Christopher Knight survived in woods for 27 years by being picky in the food and gear he stole from nearby camps, say police
Maine hermit Christopher Knight - in pictures
Maine hermit Christopher Knight - in pictures
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Some of the equipment
retrieved by police from Christopher Knight's dismantled camp in the
woods of Maine. Photograph: Robert F Bukaty/AP
He would meditate on an overturned bucket while staring up at
the sky and knew all the eagles that nested nearby. And in his 27 years
of seclusion in the woods, Christopher Knight also refined his tastes in
the food and gear he stole to survive, authorities said on Thursday
after dismantling the hermit's lair in the far north-eastern state of Maine.
In the 47-year-old's camp they recovered goods that included high-end LL Bean sleeping bags and a new tent.
He was wearing brand-new shoes and gloves, all believed stolen, when authorities arrested him after he tripped a surveillance sensor at a camp last week. They believe Knight may be responsible for more than 1,000 burglaries of food and other staples during the nearly three decades he hid in the woods.
Christopher Knight, known as the North Pond Hermit. Photograph: Reuters/Maine police
Game warden Sergeant Terry Hughes said on Thursday that authorities
believed Knight broke into cottages and stole quality products because
they would last longer and help perpetuate his life of solitude. And the
hermit apparently didn't steal fridge leftovers either.
"He was a fussy eater," said Dave Proulx, a nearby cottage owner who tried to capture the hermit six or seven years ago after falling victim to more than a dozen break-ins.
Proulx, who said he came face to face with Knight while staking out his own cottage, said the hermit never made off with meat that wasn't in its original packaging. On the rainy, cloudy night of their encounter the hermit escaped by canoe after Proulx threw on a floodlight and chased him to a dock, Proulx said.
Authorities filled two pickup trucks on Thursday as they took apart Knight's camp, later displaying what they were calling evidence for local folks to sort through to try to recover their stolen goods.
There were several Nintendo Game Boys and a wristwatch, along with shovels, rakes, coolers, cooking gear, a coffee pot and toilet paper.
Authorities said Knight used logs on the ground as a makeshift commode, and at one point attached an antenna to a treetop so he could get reception on a battery-powered TV in his tarp-covered camp.
Many locals said they were relieved by Knight's arrest after enduring years of break-ins. Frank Ten Broeck, a retired New Jersey police official who has a cottage nearby, marvelled at Knight's fortitude. "To me this is mind-boggling. I just can't believe this guy was here 27 years," Ten Broeck said. "This is some of the most severe weather you can go through."
A corrections officer at Kennebec county jail in Augusta said Knight was refusing requests for interviews. He had applied for a court-appointed lawyer and had not entered a plea to the burglary and theft charges stemming from the break-in at Pine Tree Camp, a facility for special needs people.
Authorities said they caught Knight with $283 in goods in his backpack after he fell into a trap set by Hughes, who has been trying to capture the elusive woodsman for years.
In his police mugshot Knight is clean-shaven and wears a style of spectacles from the 1980s. It's a different look than in his photo from the 1984 yearbook from Lawrence high school in Fairfield, Maine. In it Knight is wearing horn-rimmed glasses and has long, thick dark hair as he leans against a tree.
The blurb accompanying the picture says he plans to become a computer technician. But authorities said by the time he was about 19 he had disappeared into the woods.
Authorities say Knight does not show signs of mental illness and they have uncovered no other motive for his seclusion except that he wanted to be alone.
Knight's arrest came a little more than a week after the capture of a self-styled mountain man in Utah who shared some of the same traits. For six years Troy James Knapp ransacked cabins on national forest land for guns, food and high-end camping gear, authorities said.
Knapp, a 45-year-old California parolee who went on the run in 2004, faces 29 burglary-related felony and misdemeanour charges in Utah that could keep him in prison for life.
In the 47-year-old's camp they recovered goods that included high-end LL Bean sleeping bags and a new tent.
He was wearing brand-new shoes and gloves, all believed stolen, when authorities arrested him after he tripped a surveillance sensor at a camp last week. They believe Knight may be responsible for more than 1,000 burglaries of food and other staples during the nearly three decades he hid in the woods.
Christopher Knight, known as the North Pond Hermit. Photograph: Reuters/Maine police
Game warden Sergeant Terry Hughes said on Thursday that authorities
believed Knight broke into cottages and stole quality products because
they would last longer and help perpetuate his life of solitude. And the
hermit apparently didn't steal fridge leftovers either."He was a fussy eater," said Dave Proulx, a nearby cottage owner who tried to capture the hermit six or seven years ago after falling victim to more than a dozen break-ins.
Proulx, who said he came face to face with Knight while staking out his own cottage, said the hermit never made off with meat that wasn't in its original packaging. On the rainy, cloudy night of their encounter the hermit escaped by canoe after Proulx threw on a floodlight and chased him to a dock, Proulx said.
Authorities filled two pickup trucks on Thursday as they took apart Knight's camp, later displaying what they were calling evidence for local folks to sort through to try to recover their stolen goods.
There were several Nintendo Game Boys and a wristwatch, along with shovels, rakes, coolers, cooking gear, a coffee pot and toilet paper.
Authorities said Knight used logs on the ground as a makeshift commode, and at one point attached an antenna to a treetop so he could get reception on a battery-powered TV in his tarp-covered camp.
Many locals said they were relieved by Knight's arrest after enduring years of break-ins. Frank Ten Broeck, a retired New Jersey police official who has a cottage nearby, marvelled at Knight's fortitude. "To me this is mind-boggling. I just can't believe this guy was here 27 years," Ten Broeck said. "This is some of the most severe weather you can go through."
A corrections officer at Kennebec county jail in Augusta said Knight was refusing requests for interviews. He had applied for a court-appointed lawyer and had not entered a plea to the burglary and theft charges stemming from the break-in at Pine Tree Camp, a facility for special needs people.
Authorities said they caught Knight with $283 in goods in his backpack after he fell into a trap set by Hughes, who has been trying to capture the elusive woodsman for years.
In his police mugshot Knight is clean-shaven and wears a style of spectacles from the 1980s. It's a different look than in his photo from the 1984 yearbook from Lawrence high school in Fairfield, Maine. In it Knight is wearing horn-rimmed glasses and has long, thick dark hair as he leans against a tree.
The blurb accompanying the picture says he plans to become a computer technician. But authorities said by the time he was about 19 he had disappeared into the woods.
Authorities say Knight does not show signs of mental illness and they have uncovered no other motive for his seclusion except that he wanted to be alone.
Knight's arrest came a little more than a week after the capture of a self-styled mountain man in Utah who shared some of the same traits. For six years Troy James Knapp ransacked cabins on national forest land for guns, food and high-end camping gear, authorities said.
Knapp, a 45-year-old California parolee who went on the run in 2004, faces 29 burglary-related felony and misdemeanour charges in Utah that could keep him in prison for life.
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