What can Robert Vicino do to put you in this nuke-proof bunker today... or at least before doomsday?
Vicino is the salesman with an Armageddon plan, and he's taking money for what he promises will one day be a comfortable, well-appointed bunker in the Mojave Desert.
Vicino runs the Del Mar-based company, Vivos, which offers "The ultimate underground shelter solution for surviving these uncertain times." The shelters are designed to provide "up to one year of autonomous underground survival."
Vicino has already taken reservations for the bunker in Barstow -- it's a 13,000-square-foot area that includes an atrium, gym and jail.
The menu features sloppy joes and pearl potatoes. There will be enough food to last one year or whenever the pearl potato eating contest ends.
Experts told the Associated Press that demand for bunkers is growing because of strong earthquakes, terrorism and predictions of the world's end in 2012. You know, the Mayan calendar thing.
About $50,000 will get you a spot in the Mojave facility. Vicino said he has collected deposits on half the 132 spaces planned in the bunker and is still taking reservations: $5,000 for adults and $2,500 for kids.
Pets are free.
Sure, words and phrases like doomsday, Armageddon, day of reckoning, End of Days, grizzly bear on the loose, Judgement Day, apocalypse and Ragnarok sound bad, but Vicino told the Times he's not out to scare people into a bunker.
"I'm careful not to promote fear," Vicino told the Times. "But sooner or later, I believe you're going to need to seek shelter."
A Times reporter visited the site, on condition its location was not revealed. According to the Times' report:
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Property records show the site is owned by TSG Investments of Portland, Ore., which bought it from AT&T. Vicino said Vivos has an arrangement with the owner to develop and sell space in the property, which was originally built as an emergency government communications center during the Cold War.
The Times article also looks at a doomsday facility in Kansas and an Oregon man's cozy sounding "survival pod" -- designed to ride out tidal waves.
