‘Mole Man’ ordered to stop digging

William Lyttle, 75, is no ordinary neighbour: He’s known as the “mole man” for his unusual habit of digging tunnels under his house. The Guardian reports he clearly hasn’t laboured over the exterior of the 1-million-pound East London house — the roof has caved in, three windows are boarded up and paint peels from the walls.

He hasn’t been tinkering outside because he’s been tinkering in his basement. For four decades, Lyttle has been busy with a shovel and a homemade pulley, hauling out 40 tons of dirt while creating tunnels spreading out 20 metres in every direction, even under other houses.

“I joke that I expect him to come tunnelling up through the kitchen floor,” said one neighbour. But the man’s wife doesn’t find it quite so funny. “We moved in six years ago and we’ve been complaining to the council ever since,” she told the Guardian. “Until six weeks ago they had the audacity to tell us the house was structurally sound. The whole of the opposite street lost power one day after he tapped into a 450-volt cable.”

After years of complaints, the local council used ultrasound scanners to ascertain the problem.

Now, the council is temporarily evicting Lyttle to fill the holes with cement. “There has been movement in the ground,” an inspector said in applying for a court order to remove Lyttle. “He’s fortunate a London bus is not in his front garden.”