This Little Boy Lived In An IKEA For A Week

I'm pretty sure when I "ran away from home" as a child, I got as far as the gate of my parents' house's front yard and waited there until someone noticed I was gone and came out to retrieve me. But Peng Yijan, the Chinese boy who ran away from home got as far as the local IKEA, where he lived for a week before he was found. Peng is only 12-years-old, so his IKEA sojourn is terrifying for his parents but also weirdly really impressive. He went fugitive after having a fight with his mother about not doing his math homework (respect.) on November 3rd, which is when he hightailed it to the Shanghai IKEA store for a staycation. All those times I've said to my friends while shopping for cheap wine glasses at IKEA, "I could totally just live here LOL" just get way more real.

Apparently Peng had been wandering the streets feeding himself with free food samples from the city's supermarkets. I mean, I wouldn't complain about living off Trader Joe's samples, if it came down to that. It's believed that Peng then spent his evenings luxuriating in dreams in the show beds section of IKEA. The police tracked him down on Sunday after he was seen on a railway station surveillance camera, and after being advised by his mother that he enjoyed visits to IKEA.

When the police found Peng in the IKEA, he was "weak with hunger". He was rushed to hospital, but is fine now, although probably grounded by his parents for eternity, and possibly with an F in math. All in all, it sounds like a sort of fun week for a smart kid (except for the hunger part at the end), a horrible nightmare for his parents, and possibly the plot of a forthcoming Disney holiday movie.

Image: Getty Images