It’s like that crappy Natalie Portman movie come to life (or, that Chuck Mangione episode of King of the Hill) — a 14-year-old boy went undetected for four days living in a Corsicana, Texas Walmart, until a trail of garbage finally led to his discovery. The boy had set up two “campsites” around the store — one in the stroller aisle behind the large boxes and one behind the paper towels and toilet paper.
To avoid raising suspicion, the boy changed his clothes every couple of hours, and since I’m already dropping pop culture references left and right, I guess you could say he was a real Master of Disguise. (I’ll just wait here for my Pulitzer.)
CBS DFW has the details:
Customers who walked down the aisles where the teen was living never noticed two hidden compounds where the boy was able to store necessities, sleep in a makeshift bed and and eat items taken from inside the store.
He created a crack in the back wall of the drink aisle to grab juice and even collected a fish from the pet department. Sources said the 14-year-old was so concerned about being caught he wore diapers instead of using the store restroom.
Sources said the teen tried to run out of the store when he was discovered.
It was unclear whether or not the boy tried to run away because he got caught living in the Walmart or because he was actually wearing diapers. Not to be mean or anything, but come on kid. You might be living in a Walmart but that doesn’t mean you can’t have some self-respect. Anyway, I wish the best for the kid. Apparently he lives with relatives but was visiting other relatives when he went missing, so not sure what the story is there. Either way, there’s got to be a better solution than Walmart. Hell, even Target would be a step up.