Being in the Netherlands this is just such an interesting story, there's so much going on.
The kids, if they actually went 'underground' 9 years ago would have been in the mandatory schooling age. Checks on this tend to be quite stringent and home schooling needs to be approved by the (I think) local authorities.
The Netherlands is quite densely populated and there is just no way if they weren't outside that they didn't notice any civilization existing. Airplanes, fireworks, things like that would have existed.
Then the fact that the home owner never once visited their renters in 9 years or apparently they didn't have to do taxes.
Aside from all that, I'm very amused by the fact that this 25 year old person went to a bar, was turned away, then the next time ordered 5 beers and got to talking with the bar owner and they were confused so they alerted the police. Imagine the confusion on the person that thought the world ended and ended up at a bar with people drinking beers!
Oh and the plot twists, the oldest person first being thought to be the father not actually being the father! And then being arrested for interfering in the investigation.
This is just so weird, how could 5 kids ages 16-25 (or 7-17 when it started) be kept inside for that long???
I thought the mayor did confirm that the children existed on paper [0] but even if not they claim to have been there for 9 years putting the youngest child at 7 years old. They'd have been at school and disappeared??
Re-reading the link it says that 'some' of the people were registered.
The kids, if they actually went 'underground' 9 years ago would have been in the mandatory schooling age. Checks on this tend to be quite stringent and home schooling needs to be approved by the (I think) local authorities.
The Netherlands is quite densely populated and there is just no way if they weren't outside that they didn't notice any civilization existing. Airplanes, fireworks, things like that would have existed.
Then the fact that the home owner never once visited their renters in 9 years or apparently they didn't have to do taxes.
Aside from all that, I'm very amused by the fact that this 25 year old person went to a bar, was turned away, then the next time ordered 5 beers and got to talking with the bar owner and they were confused so they alerted the police. Imagine the confusion on the person that thought the world ended and ended up at a bar with people drinking beers!
Oh and the plot twists, the oldest person first being thought to be the father not actually being the father! And then being arrested for interfering in the investigation.
This is just so weird, how could 5 kids ages 16-25 (or 7-17 when it started) be kept inside for that long???