I’ve been jogging my memory all afternoon, but I’m 85% sure I bought a veggie burrito off of this guy in the parking lot next to the Hartford Civic Center after a Phish show once. This dreadlocked hippie living in a school bus parked in big box retailer parking lots is kind of my spirit animal. A modern day Marry Prankster, Corbin Pratt apparently bought the bus in Northern California, where he grew medical marijuana (he left because the scene got “too cutthroat” — damn corporatized marijuana industry), and drove it the whole way across I-80 to Maine, where he grew to love Portland. Seems like someone in Portland did not love him back, though, turning into an incident on Monday night. Via the Portland Press Herald:
After learning that police planned to tow the bus, the 29-year-old Pratt ran back on board and hid beneath his mattress, leading to a three-hour confrontation with police. Officers did not believe Pratt had any guns, but couldn’t be sure. He eventually surrendered, was charged with criminal trespassing and ordered to appear in court Dec. 3.
Pratt arrived in Maine on Aug. 15, and has been living in the bus with other friends he met, working as a dishwasher. For a time, the bus was parked on Fore Street until Portland police told him it smelled like urine and he had to move it. He parked in the dirt lot at the northeast end of Commercial Street for a time, until faced with a quandary: City parking enforcement told him he had to move, but police told him he wasn’t allowed to drive the unregistered, uninspected, unsafe vehicle.
He managed to slip away and parked the bus at the Falmouth Wal-Mart.
Pratt spent six weeks there. His “crew” as he calls them, had moved along at that point. Chris Kidder, who had met Pratt when the bus was parked in Portland, then joined him on board. Kidder tries to earn money by offering free hugs in Portland’s Old Port.
When Wal-Mart management told them to move, Pratt drove to the Scarborough Wal-Mart. That lasted a week. He moved to the Target store off Running Hill Road, but lasted only a few hours there before store management called police and asked to have the bus removed.
The best part is the reason Pratt ended the “stand-off” — “Because I wanted a cigarette and to get stoned.” The struggle is real, Corbin.
Hippie pic via Shutterstock
[H/T: Barstool]