{"id":4038,"date":"2012-10-11T15:27:03","date_gmt":"2012-10-11T15:27:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/steampunkopera.wordpress.com\/?p=4038"},"modified":"2012-10-11T15:27:03","modified_gmt":"2012-10-11T15:27:03","slug":"living-in-the-tunnels-underneath-las-vegas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulshapera.com\/temp\/living-in-the-tunnels-underneath-las-vegas\/","title":{"rendered":"Living In The Tunnels Underneath Las Vegas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mole people refer to people who live underground, usually under a large city. New York has them, but a city with one of the largest verified population who live under it is Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

Beneath Las Vegas is miles of tunnels, built mostly for flood control. Much of it never sees use and over 1,000 people live in these tunnels, setting up various types of room and housing.<\/p>\n

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All photos featured today were taken by Austin Hargrove.<\/p>\n

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The following text is from articles by thesun.co.uk and dailymail.co.uk:<\/p>\n

“Steven was forced into the tunnels three years ago after his heroin addiction led to him losing his job.<\/p>\n

He says he is now clean and the pair survive by\u00a0\u2018credit hustling\u2019 in the casinos, donning second-hand clothes to check the slot machines for chips accidently left behind.<\/p>\n

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Further into the maze are Amy and Junior who married in the Shalimar Chapel \u2013 one of Vegas\u2019s most popular venues – before returning to the tunnels for their honeymoon.<\/p>\n

They lost their home when they became addicted to drugs after the death of their son Brady at four months old.<\/p>\n

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\u2018I heard Las Vegas was a good place for jobs,\u2019 Amy said. \u2018But it was tough and we started living under the staircase outside the MGM casino.<\/p>\n

\u2018Then we met a guy who lived in the tunnels. We\u2019ve been down here ever since.\u2019<\/p>\n

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\u2018These are normal people of all ages who\u2019ve lost their way, generally after a traumatic event,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Many are war veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress.<\/p>\n

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\u2018It\u2019s not known how many children are living there, as they\u2019re kept out of sight, but I\u2019ve seen evidence of them \u2013 toys and teddy bears.\u2019<\/p>\n

As for other entertainment in the tunnels, the 45-year-old adds: \u201cWe\u2019re big talk radio fans. And a few of us are accomplished musicians and have instruments here.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne guy down here has a full-time job. I don\u2019t think gambling is the cause of many people being down here. It\u2019s more alcohol and drugs. We all gamble a bit \u2014 we\u2019re in Vegas.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cTo come out of the tunnel and face the world is intimidating for some of the people. Some are very much entrenched down in that tunnel and comfortable. That\u2019s why the charity doesn\u2019t like to give out too much food, water and clothing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want them to get too comfortable because it is really an illusion. It can be extremely dangerous.”
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Mole people refer to people who live underground, usually under a large city. New York has them, but a city with one of the largest verified population who live under it is Las Vegas. Beneath Las Vegas is miles of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","clearfix"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulshapera.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulshapera.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulshapera.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulshapera.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulshapera.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paulshapera.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4038\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulshapera.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulshapera.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulshapera.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}