Hermit 'River Dave', 81, says he's 'happier than billionaires in his first statement since his release from jail for squatting on a private wooded property 27 years in a shack that mysteriously burnt to the ground.
'It's all physical stuff,' David Lidstone told NBC10 Boston on Thursday after he was released from jail for trespassing.
'It's what you have in friends that counts. These multimillionaires and billionaires - I'm happier than they are,' he said.
The cabin was located in New Hampshire along the Muchyedo Bank in Merrimack County in between the Merrimack River and Interstate 93.
It had solar panels but no other electricity. He has grown his own food, cut his own firewood, and tended to his pets and chickens.
'River Dave' Lidstone said he's happier than billionaires with his bare minimum possessions and small wood cabin in the woods of New Hampshire
'River Dave' has become a local folk hero and is beloved by the community
The humble cabin in a wooded area of New Hampshire where Dave 'River Dave' Lidstone lived for 27 years was mysteriously burned down, and he was arrested for trespassing in July
This was 'River Dave's' home before it burned down
Despite his decades-long stay in the wooded area, the eccentric local folk hero has suddenly been thrust into a land dispute with Leonard Giles, 86, who owns the property of River Dave's makeshift home and wanted him removed.
Giles's attorney Lisa Snow Wade said there are no discussions around allowing Lidstone to remain on the property because of liability concerns for having someone living in an illegal structure on the property.
On July 15, he was arrested for trespassing and told a judge during Wednesday's court appearance
