[URBAN NOTE] "Toronto tunnel’s builder comes forward, says it wasn’t really a tunnel at all"

[rfmcdonald]

As I expected, the builder of the mysterious tunnel by York has come out. The Globe and Mail reports, drawing heavily on a Toronto Sun interview.

The self-described “main digger” of the Toronto tunnel has come forward, saying it was meant as a private hideaway and a “fun project” to challenge his construction know-how.

In an interview with the Toronto Sun published Thursday morning, Elton McDonald, a 22-year-old construction worker, said the project was never meant to be a tunnel at all. “I was going to expand it to have a couple of rooms,” Mr. McDonald said. “I was hoping to put in a TV. I did some barbecuing there. It was more a place to hang out.”

[. . .]

Mr. McDonald has lived in the nearby Driftwood neighbourhood for years, and told the Sun the tunnel site had been there for more than two years prior to its discovery.

Inside the tunnel, police found a sophisticated bunker reinforced with a wood frame built out of plywood planks. “The individuals responsible for building it clearly had some level of expertise in ensuring its structural integrity,” Deputy Chief Mark Saunders told reporters on Feb. 24.

Mr. McDonald told the Sun he had help from some close friends and used equipment borrowed from his boss, including a gas generator. This was how the police found him, Mr. McDonald said: They traced the equipment back to his boss, who then identified him. (“My boss was not mad,” he added.)