The world's rich and powerful are buying bunkers equipped with anything up to shooting ranges amid fears the coronavirus could cause criminality to explode.
"People are buying not specifically for the coronavirus, people are buying the shelters for what the coronavirus can bring", said Gary Lynch of the Rising S Company, which manufactures luxury bunkers.
Lynch went on to affirm that at this tumultuous time, the United States is "very vulnerable economically", and conditioned that if "there were a collapse, we would see civil and social unrest".
"What you are going to have is people going door-to-door trying to do harm, trying to steal, trying to take food and trying to take possessions", Lynch detailed, mentioning the example of his clients opting for a safe underground haven, where there is no need to worry about the calamities of the outside world.
Rising S Bunkers currently offers items ranging from $50,000 to bunkers worth millions of dollars, and many of them are built from protective steel and have bullet-resistant doors, as well as house a plethora of plush amenities like heated pools, etc., the BBC reported. The largest the company has built to date, for a mystery client, is understood to have measured 13,000 square feet.
Many of the hideouts are fitted with state-of-the-art air filters that can even remove nuclear dust in the wake of a missile attack, as well as huge food pantries which can hold up to six months worth of supplies of canned and frozen, or dried goods.
The most favoured location by those tycoons that wish to hide out amid the coronavirus pandemic and its economic fallout is New Zealand.
"New Zealand is an enemy of no one. It's not a nuclear target. It's not a target for war. It's a place where people seek refuge", Lynch explained to Bloomberg.
But while some focus on solitary or one-family units, other companies have cashed in on some clients' wish to be in a community - and feel closer to the real world, even should a disaster happen.
To this end, missile warehouses and military bunkers are being transformed into condos and underground villages-complete with cinemas, swimming pools and gyms, surgeries and leisure areas. For instance, Vivos Xpoint, in South Dakota, has 575 military bunkers and is being developed to accommodate 5,000 people.
