NEW YORK — A legendary loner who vanished into the wild woods of Maine three decades ago, reemerging only to steal supplies, has finally been caught, police say. Christopher Knight, dubbed “the North Pond Hermit” in the north-eastern US state, vanished from sight in the picturesque area around the town of Rome back in 1986. Regular small-scale break-ins at area holiday camps were the only clue to Knight's existence, but he was never found — until last week. Knight, 47, was caught after a park warden noticed a surveillance camera showing him allegedly stealing from the kitchen in the currently uninhabited Pine Tree Camp. Sergeant Terry Hughes said he rushed to the site. “Soon as he stepped outside the door, I just turned, (saying) ‘Game warden: on the round, on the ground, show me your hands,' and he immediately just dropped right on the ground,” Hughes said Wednesday on local WMTV television. The mystery of the so-called hermit was quickly unraveled. Hughes said that Knight's own campsite was well-camouflaged. “We stepped around a rock and a tree and all of a sudden there we were, standing right in the middle of this encampment,” Hughes said. – AP
