Facility Services workers found a man living in the tunnels beneath the University’s Quad on Monday, as they wrapped up an asbestos cleaning project that began in January.
Dave Maharrey, associate executive director of Facility Services, said the cleaning crew was removing the last of the dangerous material from in the steam tunnels when they discovered an area in one of the larger tunnels separated from the rest of the space by a large plastic tarp.
Employees moved part of the tarp and found a man curled up under a sleeping bag with some bags of clothes near by.
“The man woke up and hollered at the crew to get off of his property,” Maharrey said.
The 67-year-old man, George Wilkins, was then brought above ground and taken to the LSU Police Department, Maharrey said.
An LSUPD spokesperson said the man was brought “kicking and screaming” to the police, and Wilkins was worried about leaving his possessions behind in the tunnel.
Police said the man was then informed about the dangers of living in the tunnels because of the broken-down asbestos that lined the tunnel walls, to which Wilkins replied he didn’t care and he’d been living there since December 1999 when he went underground to avoid the predicted Y2K disaster.
Maharrey said Wilkins was dressed in clean-looking clothes and did not look starved, so he must have left his tunnel-home to get food and other resources on occasion. Unlike last semester, when Scott Edward Michelli, 43, was found to be living illegally in Patrick F. Taylor Hall, Wilkins underground home does not violate any laws.
“We’re just going to leave him down there, he wasn’t bothering anyone until he got in the way of the asbestos clean up,” police said. “Hopefully students won’t bother him too much, now that his residence has been made known.”
The Student Government senate, which recently passed a resolution to purchase additional tables and chairs for the second floor of Middleton Library, agreed to donate a table and chair to Wilkins as well any household or “tunnelhold” amenities he may need.