Homeless man found living inside underground vault outside downtown LA museum

A homeless man was found inside an underground vault outside a museum in downtown Los Angeles.

"On Monday evening our security guards noticed an individual that had taken his backpack and a number of other bags and put them into a utility vault on Alameda Street adjacent to our building," said Doug Van Kirk, CFO of the Japanese American National Museum. "Shortly thereafter, the individual climbed into a larger utility vault and some period of time."

Van Kirk said the security guards called the Los Angles Police Department shortly after and they contacted the man that climbed into the underground vault. According to Van Kirk, police searched the individual's backpack. 

"They found some drug paraphernalia and what appeared to be a handgun," said Van Kirk. "He was taken into custody at that time."

The individual could not break into the museum from the vault but the museum was concerned about the utilities stored inside could be damaged. Van Kirk said that considering the rise in anti-Asian hate in the past few years, the museum worried about the safety of their employees and guests.

"We take any incident like this very seriously," he said. "It's really important that we take into consideration the safety of our employees (and) guests, although this was after hours. Our employees, our guests (and) our volunteers are always very important to us. 

The security for JANM said this was not the first time the individual was caught doing this.

"He said he sleeps down here," said Leonard Redway, director of facility and security for JANM. "Drinks water from the spigot that you can see right there. And he said this is his place."