If anyone is interested in the "mole man" from London that the article references:
Since the early 1960s, the man who owns and lives inside the £1m Victorian property has been digging. No one knows how far the the network of burrows underneath 75-year-old William Lyttle's house stretch. But according to the council, which used ultrasound scanners to ascertain the extent of the problem, almost half a century of nibbling dirt with a shovel and homemade pulley has hollowed out a web of tunnels and caverns, some 8m (26ft) deep, spreading up to 20m in every direction from his house. Their surveyors estimate that the resident known locally as the Mole Man has scooped 100 cubic metres of earth from beneath the roads and houses that surround his 20-room property.
In 2008 the high court ordered Lyttle to pay almost £300,000 to Hackney council to pay for repairs, but he died in 2009, leaving the council with a £400,000 repair bill.
Following his death, the property become even more dilapidated – to the point where the council had to fill in the tunnels with concrete to prevent subsidence. When they did so they found Lyttle had stashed four wrecked Renault cars, a boat, several baths and fridges and numerous TV sets under his home. They are still there, encased in the concrete used to shore up the property.
The site was sold with planning permission for the derelict structure
Since the early 1960s, the man who owns and lives inside the £1m Victorian property has been digging. No one knows how far the the network of burrows underneath 75-year-old William Lyttle's house stretch. But according to the council, which used ultrasound scanners to ascertain the extent of the problem, almost half a century of nibbling dirt with a shovel and homemade pulley has hollowed out a web of tunnels and caverns, some 8m (26ft) deep, spreading up to 20m in every direction from his house. Their surveyors estimate that the resident known locally as the Mole Man has scooped 100 cubic metres of earth from beneath the roads and houses that surround his 20-room property.
Source: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2006/aug/08/communities.u...