ust our life.

- [Pamela] Life lived undercover by artist Michael Townsend and friends, squatters beneath the very feet of shoppers.

The scene of the crime, Providence Place Mall, where a modern day epic escapade unspooled.

Townsend says he cased the place when it was under construction in the late 1990s and... - When the mall was being built, I saw a space that I could not figure out what it would be used for.

We went looking for that anomaly in the architecture, and we snuck ourselves in there and we took out our flashlight.

(dramatic music) There it was.

- [Pamela] What it was, a hideout.

Beginning in 2003, ringleader Townsend and seven accomplices became mall roaming renegades with a den they could retreat to, a hole in the wall, or more accurately, a hole in the mall, reinforcing Rhode Island's reputation as Rogue's Island.

Townsend is a Rhode Island School of Design grad, urban explorer and ingenious interloper.

He creates tape art, temporary graffiti murals.

Outlines, he says, were inspired by those silhouettes police trace of murder victims.

But Townsend's greatest claim to fame may be his secret mall apartment.

How he pulled it off is now the subject of a new documentary with Townsend in the starring role.

- It seemed like a very absurd fantasy and perhaps a great challenge.

- [Pamela] The mall was part of a whole downtown revitalization project in the late 1990s called The Providence Renaissance.

Townsend was living and working in art studio apartments at a nearby mill.

- Shortly after, a developer comes in and says, "I'm gonna knock down your home."

- [Pamela] Townsend says that displacement prompted the mall encampment.

- We have to dive into the intentions behind the crime to really understand it.

I guess the simple answer would be we lost a home, we gained a home.

In the act of gaining the home, we had to do a little bit of trespassing.

Okay, a lot of trespassing.

(Pamela chuckles) - [Pamela] Townsend's defense: it all started innocently enough.

- This was an idea about, sort of, getting to know the mall better.

And, okay, we'll go spend seven days there.

- Was it an art project?

- It was a, let's just call it a reconnaissance mission, or a deep exploration, a deep dive into the mall.

Our first night demanded that we find a place to lay our head.

I remembered that space.

- [Pamela] Townsend reveals they broke in through an unlocked door here at the back of the mall, still a gritty city landscape near the train tracks today.

(door clatters) (suspenseful music) The intruders discovered a serpentine labyrinth of staircases and hallways led to their illegal layer.

The perpetrators fully furnished it and managed to smuggle in three tons of cinder blocks to build a wall with a locked door.

They hung out, off and on, for four years.

As for facilities... - The mall's open super duper late.

Like, that movie theater's open 'til, like, 1-2 a.m. sometimes.

So you've got, there's a very short period of time that you do not have access to bathrooms.

- [Pamela] The space was outfitted with lights, TV, a PlayStation, all using an extension cord to siphon electricity off the mall.

- I had a habit that whenever we were there for any amount of time, and we knew we were using electricity, I would always go to where the mall offices were, and I would put a $20 bill in an envelope that said, "Thank you for the resources."

And I would slide it under the door.

It was a homestead.

We had successfully reached the point where we could relax and just spend time together or time by ourselves.

- Even though you could get caught at any moment?

- Yeah, it's relaxing with a hint of danger.

- [Pamela] It wasn't all mischief during those years.

They were volunteering to teach tape art to cancer patients at Hasbro Children's Hospital, and in New York making tape art honoring the fallen after 9/11.

As for those curious about the notorious... - So the apartment in the mall had this big gaping space that looked down into a storage area.

You would come up this steep metal staircase.

- [Pamela] The documentary had access to 25 hours of Townsend's home video taken on a tiny digital camera.

- There was no sense that it would ever be used for anything or edited in any way.

We just wanted to make sure that we had a record of it.

It's super voyeuristic, and it captures a lot of our very, very casual and intimate conversations we're having with each other.

- And how were you able to elude the authorities for all those years?

- We spent a lot of time in the mall, so we understood the rhythms of where people were walking, where the cameras were.

Most of our actions always happened in broad daylight.

That's the best time to do things because that's when crime doesn't happen.

- [Pamela] But this gang's luck ran out when two junior security guards found the locked door.

Townsend was arrested, spent a night in jail before pleading no contest.

- I will say the Providence Police did find it hilarious.

They were deeply amused by it.

That judge was just shakin' his head.

He's like, "This is not a criminal act."

He's like, "I'm gonna give you a misdemeanor trespassing."

And he said, "Keep your nose clean for six months."

- [Pamela] He managed to do that.

But Townsend is neither rehabilitated nor remorseful.

- It's a sort an art righteousness that kicks in where you say, "Okay, this is the right thing to do.

This is for a good reason.

It is not harmful to these spaces.

It's an act of beautification.

It's an act of stewardship."

- Townsend says today he has other such stewardship projects sprinkled around Providence.

This handmade wooden hammock suspended above the river outside the mall is a concealed sanctuary where he says he slept a couple of nights.

Did you ever think that this story would continue on for decades now?

- No.

People continue to tell each other the story, so therefore it's fallen into the space of folklore.

- [Pamela] And it became the stuff of urban legend.

- Oh, sexy.

- Kinda crazy fun heist movie.

- But despite bids to make a movie or TV show, Townsend refused to release his story until he met documentarian Jeremy Workman at an art event.

Unbelievable story when it happened.

Unbelievable story now.

What do you make of all this?

- It's just this bonkers story.

I thought he was like punking me.

I thought he was doing a prank on me when he told me about this.

- [Pamela] The director says he believes the clandestine clubhouse caper resonates beyond Rhode Island.

- At it's root, it's just super fun.

It lands in that beautiful safe spot between super adventurous and really bratty.

- It's a story that just, kind of, always seems to be relevant for time period to any demographic.

You know, it's a story about gentrification and standing up to corporate interests.

It's a story about art.

- He says it's also a story that triggers childhood memories of living in a tree house or building a fort.

He brought the idea to actor and filmmaker Jesse Eisenberg who became executive producer.

In a full circle moment, management of Providence Place, which is struggling financially, has explored the prospect of putting some apartments in the mall.

Another irony, the man once forever banished from Providence Place was welcomed back 18 years later in March of 2025 for the local premiere.

One more surprising part of the documentary, I found myself making a cameo from long ago in the opening scene.

Artists set up an apartment inside Providence Place Mall going undetected for years.

- One of my favorite clips of all time is with you as a newscaster being, like, "This is an amazing story."

So that was really something that really, I felt, like, captured the moment.

- You think she's got a shot at an Oscar?

- Oh sure, best supporting actress, you know?