A homeless guy has spoken out about the hostility he faces from police officers who suspect him of kidnapping his own son.
Rob, also known as Pirate Rob, appeared on Tuesday’s Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild, where he discussed his unconventional existence.
The 49-year-old, who spends part of the year in the homeless hamlet Slab City in California, also lives in a makeshift tent on an Oregon island.
Rob showed Ben around his house and explained his family life, referring to himself as a ‘bouji bum’ due to his ‘high-class’ interests.
Rob has an 18-year-old son, Damien, with whom he lives, as well as two daughters, which explains why Damien’s mother abandoned him when he was younger.
When asked why he chose this lifestyle, Rob said it was’safe’ because’so many people attempt to rip him away from me’ in the outside world.


‘It’s just so overwhelming I’d rather just come out into the wild,’ he added
When Ben inquired who was attempting to ‘pull’ Damien apart from him, Rob said, ‘It was everyone.’ It would be the old woman down the road who saw my son with me and assumed he was up to no good or something.
‘The police instantly judged and constantly tried to tear us apart. We even had police take us to the police station and put us in different rooms and he’s just a little kid.

‘They were telling me they would take him away from me if he could. For what reason?’
Speaking further about his run-ins with the authorities, Rob stated that he’d had ‘cops believing I’d abducted him more times than I could count.’
He also stated that he was contacted three times by different cops in one day.
Rob stated that he had “always dreamed of being a father” and wished to be a different parent than his own “overbearing” father.
Ben has encountered other people living off-grid in earlier episodes of the docuseries, including former Sydney billionaire David Glasheen, who lost £6.5 million in one day.
After squandering his wealth, David left the city for Restoration Island, a remote backwater off the coast of northern Queensland, where he had even established his own microbrewery.
Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild is available to stream on My5.