Skimming through the article - the police agencies, justice system, etc. poured an utterly ridiculous number hours and pounds into the case of an old homeless man, who'd dug himself a tiny "hobbit hole" to live in. Those organizations need to be replaced with some sane, reality-oriented ones. And maybe the leaders of the old organizations should be reassigned - to standing sentry duty on the South Sandwich Islands. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Georgia_and_the_South_Sa... After all, some dangerous terrorists in a balloon might try to sneak in and steal one of Her Majesties' glaciers, then flood London by dropping the glacier in the Thames. But with a crack group of counter-terrorist sentries keeping watch 24/7, we'll all be safe from that...

/s

Here's the bit of PVC pipe he got 5 years for, I doubt it could work -

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/man-jailed-for-five-ye...

It's sad every time you hear these stories about people living in underground car parks they have dry walled off or unused store rooms, for some reason society hammers them.

All the kids books I ever read, kids would run away from home and do this. It was seen as independence and exploring. Different times I guess. "My Side of the Mountain", "The Prince of Central Park", "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" also the "Three Investigators" and their hidden hideout.