What I find astonishing is that he was never "detected" or found, despite living about a mile away from a road, and apparently close enough to civilization (including campers etc.) to commit lots of petty thefts. By his own statements, he has apparently admitted to 1000+ thefts. Over 27 years, that is about 3 per month. I would think that someone would have noticed a pattern of petty thefts in the area, but apparently not.

I have to think that people saw him around, but simply ignored him - - - "just another homeless person" type of thinking. In effect, he was invisible to people. Some may have even given him handouts, and then he was never given another thought. And I agree that it is likely that there are some mental issues there.

On the whole, IMO, it is a rather sad story.