We had plasma TVs, stereos, disco lights above, it was very beautiful. No one has offered us an opportunity to life. His feet slide between slabs of steel concrete. We had electricity in the sewer from a bus ticket office. REPORTER: That says, Bruce Lee, King of the Sewers. I am the only one who succeeded in achieving something for the homeless. They have all they need – after a fashion. I thought about these poor losers, I didn’t want them bitching that I ruined their pipes. When he comes out from the underground and crosses the street the dogs get frantic. Any short circuit goes straight to his electric panel and not to the source. They saw that mymin was ripe, clever and cunning and said ‘come, join the gang’. Before I arrived to this place, people were dropping like flies. An alternate universe inhabited by Nicu, his friends and their leader Bruce Lee. You know what he asks for? I keep them on for months. I started sweating, a kind of panic attack. I was starving but I didn’t know how to steal. Bruce was released, sorted them out and it all went back to how it was. Everything gravitates around Bruce Lee. I’ve got nothing to spend my money on I walk only barefoot; my clothes are over a year old. Some dogs curl up behind him and press, as if they would like to lift and carry him around on their backs. I am very light. Go and do this job. When he emerges he feels that his lungs are collapsing because of the heat and heavy air in the sewer. The following morning, the day of Catalina's funeral, it was the turn of Bruce Lee - the self-styled "King of the Sewers". He’s speechless: they are filled with sugar. She works as a prostitute, it’s her business, she has her own money, explains Bruce Lee. If not, she’s free. He controls the comings and goings of the damned and sells them drugs or a powdered metallic paint called Aurolac, which they inhale to ease the symptoms of hunger and cold. In winter the pipes were so hot your skin got peeled off if you touched them. It’s always packed with people armed with used syringes who are ready to protect Bruce Lee. There's nothing new about him for a couple of years. Everything in the sewer was built by him. He comes here daily and stays until late at night.. Marius swindled foreign currency and other banned stuff during communism. There’s a guy in there with a shamanic look. The price of the powder varies depending on who you are. Even the police were avoiding me. The tunnel Lee lives in … They had no cables, no multiple plugs, they were pathetic. Simon can’t be corrupted by the rogues who go to him and demand their right or try to bully him. The sewers, and their king Bruce Lee, were the subject of a recently released Channel 4 News film. 54% Upvoted. First we built up a layer of bricks and concrete over the pipes and then I poured this concrete all over. My main food is garlic. I fasten it with three clips like that and I log onto the internet. hide. Every time they caught him they stripped and beat him with slim fibre glass sticks. To enter a hole with two to three thousand drug addicts who prick each other with syringes, and to inject from the start. Under my rule, everyone has their own money, they have what to eat. A wall of heat, perspiration, thumping music and diesel fumes hits us as we descend into the darkness, clouding our senses. The dogs, the community, the generator and what else they invest in scrap and trinkets. The girls were raped and the bosses were bosses only for their own ends. It doesn’t make you as dizzy; you’re calmer and you speak sweetly and softly. Bruce Lee, The King Of Sewers. He is all I have. The sewers, and their king Bruce Lee, were the subject of a recently released Channel 4 News film. He has a family and now he volunteers for an organisation that feeds the homeless. I’d go to balconies, I’d steal from farmers, but I wasn’t a burglar. One man, calling himself Bruce Lee and known as the 'King Of The Sewers', paints his head in aurolac, a lacquer used to paint metal which causes a high if breathed in. Deep under the streets of Bucharest – in Europe, in the 21st century – there is a network of tunnels and sewers that is home to hundreds of men, women and children stricken by drug abuse HIV and TB. I was conned. People would die. A gawky tramp dashes towards her through the gaping manhole, grabs the girl and spits in her face. She’s better off alone and producing money for herself! I started shooting into the pubis and the main arteries. He tramped around Ramnicu Valcea, then travelled aimlessly around the country. All the electrical cables go through his electric panel. Man, it made me steal! Read about Bruce Lee, King Of The Sewers by Minors and see the artwork, lyrics and similar artists. In exchange he’s given two white sachets with PURE written on them in a rabid red. But if each of them tells you their life story, how they spent these last years with me, you won’t believe it.”. All the one hundred dogs that he cares for seem to be hypnotized by the sound of his armour. Bucharest, the capital of Romania, is a beautiful city full of graceful architecture and rich with history. He goes to a cash-point and withdraws all the money – 20 million and he descends into the sewer. We used hundreds of bags of sand and cement. If you break them, it means you’ve got something against me. I eat little meat, but I overindulge with cheese and milk. The pipe is now protected of the extra weight by two layers of concrete. MAN (Translation): This is me as a child, I grew up here in the sewers. He looks after the dogs as if they were children. We were bandits. He pushes his body forward with his arms and back and disappears underground. I hardly advanced a couple of steps and I had already given away 5 million to the people around me. Bruce Lee, King of Sewers. I’d remove the scales, wedge them open and eat them. No one makes the kind of money he makes. I learned all these things one by one from everyday life. Everything was bought and paid for, I didn’t steal anything! Thanks to him, it doesn’t rain over our heads. The followers bring metal and valuable items in exchange for powders, aurolac, protection, shelter, food and money. He found refuge in Dristor. They laid concrete over me and I still managed to get out. For me they meant something. I was worried that I’d get carried away by some bad hallucination and lose it. The only solution was to ask him for help. Only that you’ll never find him home. He is the father of the homeless. He was going begging, breaking into shops, he did anything that made the bosses happy. First I got under their skin, than I formed my own gang. The face you saw could have been Bruce Lee’s. He learned from TV to perform all his karate moves. Bruce Lee starts hitting him with his fists, legs, karate. Once in power, he built an empire with rules and refined methods of making money: We would check out for the manholes, then make an itinerary which lead us to the parking lots. But beneath its beautiful streets is another world, buried there after the fall of Romania's brutal communist dictatorship – a world of sewers and forgotten orphans. After that, we found ourselves another place to rent, in a bank. Wearing a sheep coat and traditional clothing, all the rogues laughed at him. That is why I live in the sewer and help the poor ones. With his demons on a leash, Stefan sits sweating on a hot pipe, leaning against the counter filled with powders and syringes. The tunnels were a destination for people looking to buy synthetic heroin substitutes and to inhale the fumes of a metallic paint called aurolac. Shredder’s mole. Well, he has his men who work for him. I didn’t know it was made out of silver and gold. Last summer, the city hall set up a first aid tent for people affected by the heat. They found themselves in the situation of not being able to supply electricity to keep their water coolers working. But he was prepared: he had a jackhammer, pickaxe and flex. This is exactly the main impression. Bruce Lee’s house is this entire world, as far as you can see. It’s purely an impression that someone else, a presence, participates in what happens within you. e secured the sewer against all kinds of dangers they could confront: police, strangers, all the unwanted persons. Andrei is the spitting image of Bruce Lee, with rotten teeth and the temper of a rabid pit bull. Bruce Lee, the Chinese actor was Florin’s childhood idol. He used drugs daily for eight years. I cook for the entire sewer from here all the way to the other end. Copper, brass, paper. This chance of a better life – we created that for ourselves and on our own. A patched vest crowded with war medals and brooches of semi-precious stones covers him. Everybody comes here and says oh, we tried to take them to some social center or whatnot. Police seized knives, swords, stolen paintings and a large quantity of stolen cash. I don’t accept gifts, I don’t want anything for free. As a man, when I need a woman I pay for her. This lea… And since I’m a good fighter I finished them all and took their place. I also drink it, wear it, take it shopping with me and make money with it. They are very dirty; they have syringes. Many of his friends died because of drug use. I close and open them, I’m the boss. The man behind the counter is called 'Bruce Lee' after his street fighting days. Simon is skinny, with a Brazilian footballer’s hair style and he looks like the wiser one. While the identity of this man was not officially released, local media say he is Florin Hora, who uses the street name “Bruce Lee.” Authorities also provided a video of the seizure of various electronics, several allegedly stolen paintings, and a number of syringes from the tunnels under North Station. People come and ask him for money to pay their rent or bank loans. I wear a chain of about 30-40 kilos, one of those 10 metre long ones. The boys that were not caught would return in the morning with food, electrical items or clothes. Everyone who made her their wife did so All those who took her as a wife did so to make her produce money for them. Everything we needed. Source: Photographer and filmmaker Joost Vandebrug. It was a few hundred years old. If she wants to live with you, fine. He only knew how to protect himself, but on the street you must break all the rules, there is only one rule: survival. I wasn’t selling. And I am righteous! You can only crawl in and only if you’re less than 70-80 kilos. He got into a fistfight with some school mates, he caused a few scandals and found himself thrown out in the street. Farmageddon. Dumbass! He boarded the train and got off at Gara de Nord. I’m better off alone. We had a deposit full of cigarettes, drinks, food and whatever else you needed. I am street fighter. He lived in the sewer as well, around Dristor-Unirii. She’s a woman, what a prick of a man! The programmes that the NGOs and the town hall came up with to integrate these poor creatures are useless. Now, it is the same – he is surrounded by vulnerable people: children, elderly people, women and stray dogs. The man behind the counter is called “Bruce Lee” (pictured above) after his street fighting days. Police have carried out a large-scale raid on a network of Bucharest tunnels and sewers, home to hundreds of men, women and children stricken by drug abuse and TB. We live out of garbage, and we steal every now and then. I buy copper, brass, paint and whitewash. I almost lapsed into gangrene. His mother abandoned him three days after birth. Half of the sewer is a lounge for junkies. says Viorel staring at the ground. In the underground tunnels of Bucharest lies the hidden world of the Lost Boys. I think about sex in public – in that moment everything becomes real. When he walks or crawls through the sewer you think it’s Santa Claus. You’re not the only one who has access to them. The Turks used to beat up the tramps, take their girls and send them to Turkey and force them into prostitution. On the day of the funeral, Bruce Lee (left) – the self-styled King of the Sewers — arrived barefoot and with his head painted with aurolac, bright silver paint that the addicts sniff. Nov 10, 2018. Discuție. “I’m disappointed by weak and cowardly people – from the youngest to the oldest. We’d emerge at night, batty, from the sewer. They can’t sniff that much. He keeps the underground supplied with a metallic paint called Aurelac that … I almost died, even though I know this sewer so well. They are not running around uselessly, they are not out robbing and stealing. He spends about 20 million a day. He hit the bottom and went to live in the sewers underneath Gara de Nord. Casa Jurnalistului When they first saw Bruce Lee, he was wearing very little.