12 year old boy found living in ikea

Photo: KaktusLampa

Meatballs. Your very own bed. A never-ending supply of funny-shaped shelves. There are countless reasons why one might want to live in IKEA. Fans of Sweden's own blue-and-yellow flatpack giant have no doubt dreamed of doing so. This summer, its Sydney store even offered members of the public the chance to spend the night for a mass sleepeover.

Now, though, someone has actually been found living in IKEA: a 12 year old boy in Xuhui, Shanghai. And the reality of spending several nights in the Swedish showrooms is far from the fantasy fans might imagine.

Peng Yijian went missing last week after his mother told him off when the school sent him home for not completing his seventh-grade mathematics assignment.

The boy fled home with just 1.5 yuan (25 US cents) in his pockets and could not be found for a week.

He was reported missing within a day of his disappearance, prompting police to check CCTV footage in the local area. While analysing the tapes, they spotted the boy wandering near a local Carrefour supermarket.

"We thought there might be other places he likes to visit, so we asked his mother. She gave us eight or nine names, including Caoxi Park, Nanfang Shopping Mall, In Center and IKEA," officer Sun Miao told the Shanghai Daily.

When officers were dispatched, they saw the boy on CCTV at the furniture outlet. They sealed off the exits for 40 minutes while they searched the building, eventually finding him on the ground floor near an escalator.

It is thought that Yijian had been sleeping in IKEA, while living off free samples from the nearby supermarket.

The parents have since thanked the local police for their help, along with the media and other residents. Yijian, weak with hunger, is now being treated in hospital.