What a wonderful and amazing story coming out of our hometown! Man I love Philly and boy do I miss The Vet! HOW do you pull something like this off? Living in a stadium undetected??? This book looks amazing and I can't wait to read it!
Tom Garvey, a Vietnam Veteran set up a secret hidden apartment inside Veteran's Stadium inside a concession stand that no one used in the late 70's early 80's.
In his book, "The Secret Apartment: Vet Stadium, a surreal memoir," Tom Garvey, details how he lived in an abandoned concession stand inside Veterans Stadium for three years.
According to The Philadelphia Inquirer
For two years, Vietnam veteran Tom Garvey claims to have lived in a self-made apartment hidden inside Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium. Garvey, now 78, says he secretly refurbished an empty concession stand inside the former home of the Phillies and Eagles.
“I was like a kid with a Willy Wonka golden ticket,” he told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
He said he worked at the stadium complex parking lots through a company owned by his uncles. Through that job, Garvey received an office at the Vet and keys to an obscure entrance to the stadium.
Across from his office — out in left field — was an unused 60-foot-by-30-foot concession stand. Garvey tricked it out with all the comforts he could: a bed, sink, fridge, coffee maker and hot plate. Leftover AstroTurf made for a good carpet. Parties were a hit — including with the wives of Eagles players, who were waiting for their husbands.
“We’d put music on the stereo and have a drink,” he said. “The husbands would join their wives and have a beer, and then the lot traffic would pull out and we’d get their cars and have dinner.”