The 14-year-old boy even got himself a pet goldfish, media reports say

Aug 14, 2014 12:52 GMT  ·  By

A 14-year-old boy whose identity has now yet been shared with the public ended up making front-page news after authorities found him living inside a Walmart store in Texas, US.

The teenager is said to have run away from home late last month, on July 28. Since he had no place to go and nobody to lend him a helping hand, he decided to set up camp inside a Walmart in the city of Corsicana.

By the looks of it, this Walmart store has a surface area of about 200,000 square feet (approximately 18, 580 square meters). In other words, the 14-year-old had plenty of hiding places to pick and choose from.

According to USA Today, the runaway boy eventually settled on two hideouts that he believed were secluded and concealed enough to make it impossible for authorities and Walmart employees to find him and force him to leave.

Of these hideouts, one was behind baby strollers, and the other was behind paper towels and toilet paper, information shared with the public says. Judging by his behavior, the boy quickly grew quite fond of his hiding places.

Thus, he made himself a bed that, although not what some would call an exquisite piece of furniture, served its purpose well and allowed the 14-year-old to enjoy a good night's rest, and even got himself a pet goldfish.

Word has it that, in order to avoid being detected by store employees, he changed his clothes once every few hours. What's more, chose not to use the bathroom at this Walmart in Texas, and instead wore diapers.

Since food availability is not an issue at Walmart, the boy did not once go hungry while living inside the store. He stole various treats and soda as often as he had the chance. It's still unclear how these thefts went unnoticed by Walmart employees.

The 14-year-old was eventually caught when somebody chanced to see him emerging from behind some boxes in the store's baby apparel aisle. Authorities were alerted, and officers soon took the teenager in their custody.

Once the boy was reunited with his family, it emerged that he ran away while being looked after by one of his aunts. At the time the teenage left the aunt's home, his parents were out of town. Whether or not the woman in charge of looking after him will be held responsible for this incident remains a mystery.

Just for the record, it must be said that this Walmart adventure is not the first this 14-year-old boy has until now been through. On the contrary, it appears that he has several times run away from home over the years. On all these other occasions, however, he chose to hide in businesses, abandoned buildings and creek beds.