A US man thought to have lived in the woods for 27 years has been arrested for stealing food. Source: AAP
A US man who lived like a hermit for decades in a makeshift camp in the woods and may be responsible for more than 1000 burglaries has been caught in a surveillance trap.
Christopher Knight, 47, was arrested last week when he tripped a surveillance sensor while stealing food from a camp for people with special needs in a small town in Maine.
Authorities on Tuesday found the campsite where it's believed Knight, known locally as the North Pond Hermit, has lived for 27 years.
He was so well known to some summer cottage owners that they left food out for him so he wouldn't break in during the colder months, state Trooper Diane Vance said.
But others were hardly aware of the hermit living within their midst without detection since 1986.
Knight's living quarters included a tent covered by tarps suspended between trees, a bed, propane cooking stoves and a battery-run radio, which he used to keep up with the news and listen to talk radio and a rock station, authorities said.
Since vanishing from his Maine home for no apparent reason and setting up camp when he was about 19, Knight sustained himself on food stolen from cottages.
His favourite target was Pine Tree Camp, where game warden Terry Hughes, who's been trying to nab him for years, set up a surveillance alarm, authorities said.
Knight was caught on Tuesday as he left the camp's kitchen freezer with a backpack full of food, they said.
When arrested, Knight was clean-shaven and his hair was cut short, in contrast to the iconic hermit with a shaggy beard and long hair.
He was still using his aviator-style eyeglasses from the 1980s.
During questioning after his arrest, Knight said the last verbal contact he had with another person was in the 1990s.
"He passed somebody on a trail and just exchanged a common greeting of hello and that was the only conversation or human contact he's had since he went into the woods in 1986," Vance said.
It's not known whether Knight has a lawyer.
A message could not be left after hours at the Kennebec County Jail in Augusta, where Knight was being held on $US5,000 ($A4,760) bail charged with burglary and theft.
The trooper said the case of the North Pond hermit sometimes seemed a "myth" and bringing it to a conclusion was "amazing".
"I don't think I will ever be involved in such an incident or case of this magnitude," Vance said.
Knight had been charged only with the Pine Tree Camp burglary, in which $US238 worth of goods were taken.
Why he decided to disappear in the woods remained a question on Wednesday.
Attempts to reach relatives were unsuccessful.
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