A homeless man was apparently found living in an underground utility vault in downtown Los Angeles, according to KTLA.
Surveillance video captured the man cracking open the vault’s lid and hopping inside with his backpack.
A troubling discovery is underscoring the dire homelessness situation in Los Angeles after a man was discovered living in an underground utility vault. https://t.co/AbUcWhXKxu
— KTLA (@KTLA) July 8, 2023
The vault where the man was reportedly living is near the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) in LA’s Little Tokyo district, the outlet noted.
Doug Van Kirk, the museum’s CFO, said the security guards alerted the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) immediately, per KTLA. Officers searched the man’s backpack and “found some drug paraphernalia and what appeared to be a handgun,” Van Kirk said, according to CBS News.
The homeless man allegedly hit one of the officers and was arrested for trespassing and battery on a police officer, KTLA noted. (RELATED: NYPD Officers Are Facing More Attacks On The Job)
The museum’s security said this isn’t the first instance where the man has been caught living in there, CBS News noted.
“He said he sleeps down here, drinks water from the spigot that you can see right there. And he said this is his place,” the JANM security director said, per the outlet.
The vaults aren’t sealed because maintenance workers often need to access them, Los Angeles police officials said, according to KTLA. The vault accessed by the homeless man has reportedly been locked.