47 year old Christopher Knight is an urban legend of sorts, known by folks in Rome, Maine only as the "North Pond Hermit."

After living in the central Maine woods as a recluse for twenty-seven years, Knight is now in jail charged with burglary and theft. State police say Knight has used the Pine Tree Camp in Rome as a "store" of sorts over the years.

Police say Knight, for some yet to be explained reason, left his home when he was 19 and has been living in the Maine woods, sustaining himself even through the harsh Maine winters, apparently by stealing supplies to survive.

Police say Knight was caught Tuesday as he left the Pine Tree Camp’s kitchen freezer with a backpack full of food.

‘‘He used us like his local Walmart,’’ said Harvey Chesley, the camp’s facilities manager.

According to police, Knight would use the cover of darkness to execute his thefts and was even careful not to light fires so as not to be detected in the woods. He managed to stay warm by bundling up in sleeping bags in his makeshift shelter.

He says his last verbal communuication with another human being was back in the 90's and that was just a brief encounter with another person on a hiking trail.

Polcie say although Knight may have been responsible for as many as a thousand burglaries, he's only been charged with  the most recent theft of food from the Pine Tree Camp.

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