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Family found locked away waiting for ‘the end of times’ for 9 years

By Jenna Seng

Locals and authorities were shocked this week when a young man showed up to a local pub in Ruinerwold, Netherlands, ordered five beers and then began to ask for help and claiming he had not seen a barber, or the outside world in nine years.

The man, oldest of the six siblings found, escaped to the pub to seek help. The other five siblings were found alongside a 58-year-old man locked away in a secluded room of a rural farmhouse. The siblings had been kept there for the last nine years waiting for “the end of times” that never came.

According to the article from the Irish Times, “Dutch police find reclusive family ‘waiting for the end of time’” by Peter Cluskey, the farmhouse had a secret cellar hidden behind a large cupboard in the living room of the house. The family was found in the cellar, and the 58-year-old man, who has been identified as “not the father to the young adults,”had suffered a stroke and remained bedridden in the cellar. The man resisted to cooperate with authorities, and only said that the family was, “waiting for the end of time.” The man has now been arrested.

The youngest of the siblings had never been to school before, and it could be possible that they were under the impression that the end of times had occurred and that no one else was alive outside of the farmhouse. The siblings were taken for medical examinations and to be temporarily rehoused.

“When it comes to end times people go crazy, we have customers who genuinely believe today could be their last day and hey they’re not completely wrong. What really sparks our business is whenever there’s something on the news about an earthquake or natural disaster, that’s when the store begins to fill up,” Store manager of Andy and Bax Military Surplus Store in Portland, Oregon said.

Conversation online compared this to the real-life version of the Netflix series “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.” The series is about a girl rediscovering life after being found locked away in a bunker by a reverend who claimed that the end times were coming.

News is still unfolding regarding the relationship between the seven individuals found together, and as to where the location of the mother is. Cluskey writes that it could be possible the mother passed away and is buried somewhere on the now sealed for evidence, farmhouse property.

Richard Seng, a local Vancouver resident, talked about his friend who is a major doomsday prepper saying, “My good friend Jeff purchased multiple semi-trucks full of preparedness equipment along with a large piece of land in Northern California that the military has certified saying that should a nuclear weapon be fired the winds around this piece of land would deflect the nuclear weapon. Jeff genuinely believes God has told him the end is coming and that it’s his job to be prepared and to protect others.” Seng followed up saying because of his knowledge of Jeff’s preparedness he’s not surprised to hear about the Dutch family, but living in fear is more harmful than it is helpful.

Disclaimer, written for student purposes, not a published work, tweet taken from: https://twitter.com/i/events/1184162609009848325