Secret diary reveals Swedish 'snow man' pain

Sweden’s mystery “snow man”, named in media reports as Peter Skyllberg, who survived for several months in a snowed –under car in the north of the country, kept a journal before isolating himself in the woods, in which he describes his desperate financial situation.

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“I can’t get this to work so now I will have to do what I didn’t want to do. The only way is to become a criminal and steal. And it hurts in my soul and my heart,” Skyllberg wrote in the diary, according to daily Aftonbladet.

Hailing from near Örebro in central Sweden, he was discovered in February by a pair of passing snowmobilers who had stopped to inspect what they thought was an abandoned car in a forest trail outside of Umeå in northern Sweden.

When emergency services arrived they found a severely emaciated man who claimed to have been living in the frozen car since December without any food since mid-December.

Theories as to why the man chose to isolate himself in his car were rife after his discovery, but it soon became clear that it was financial ruin that had drove him to leave everything and take to the woods in his car.

In his diary, the man described having battled financial difficulties for several months and not managing to get the help that he needed.

“Unfortunately I can’t get any help from the social services for accommodation and maintenance. I have to prove to them that I have somewhere to live for 6 months before they help me. Sweden’s politics is ‘without accommodation no financial help and with no money no accommodation’,” he wrote.

His only remaining option for survival was to steal food, according to the paper.
When he was rescued from his snow-covered car, Skyllberg told police he had been living in his car since December 19th, surviving sub-zero temperatures by eating nothing other than snow.

Since his discovery, Skyllberg made the news all across the world, was stalked in hospital by British paparazzi and has had a documentary shot about his ordeal by the Discovery channel, a film he did not take part in the making of.

The Local/rm
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