One of the men behind the mysterious Toronto tunnel says he wasn’t done building his ultimate underground getaway.
Elton McDonald, 22, says he excavated the tunnel near York University with the help of a close friend because he wanted a place to relax and spend some down time.
“No one that I know has something like this,” McDonald told the Roz and Mocha Show on KiSS 92.5 Friday. “It was just something I always wanted to do as a child.”
McDonald, who works as a construction worker, says he built the tunnel using supplies from work. He began construction about five years ago in the forested area west of York University, near the Rexall Centre.
He says he planned to make the tunnel even larger than the 10-metre-long, two-metre-wide dimensions it had at the time it was discovered.
The dirt tunnel had wood supports to keep it from collapsing, but McDonald says he planned to improve on its construction once he had everything dug out.
“I wanted to have concrete down there too,” he said.
McDonald says the mysterious rosary recovered from the hole was a gift from his sister. He hopes police will return it to him now that he knows there will be no charges.
“That’s just something I had just to keep safe when I was working,” he said. “There were a couple times when I’d be down there and it’d collapse a little bit.”
He apologized to the public for any fears the tunnel might have brought up, after speculation ran rampant last week about the tunnel’s true purpose.
McDonald added that he hopes to build another tunnel, but will wait until he owns enough property to do it on his own land.
“If I could do it again, I know it would be 10 times better,” he said.
