A homeless man found a creative and secretive place to live: inside the Manhattan Bridge. Once police got word of it, however, his secret home was exposed.

The man, a Chinese immigrant known as "Joe," was living between girders under the Manhattan Bridge. Inside his living space, the man had a heater, a reading lamp and a "pantry" with beer, cookies and hot sauce.

Thursday morning, police yelled into the shelter. When they got no answer, they began sawing into the entrance.

Joe had a bike lock on the "door" to his place. That was cut off by a bolt cutters. Soon, the cops spotted Joe, who was wearing white pajamas. Joe wasn't injured by the saw.

"It was like the magic trick where they cut you in two, and he came out in one piece," an officer said.

Police told him he must leave and allowed him to change his clothes.

Inside the small place Joe called home, there was Styrofoam for insulation, a yellow tarp and a Bungee cord used for a makeshift ceiling.

"He's got five inches thick of Styrofoam in there. It was quite a set-up. He had a portable butane stove hooked up to a butane tank ... safe for indoors. That's a good way to keep warm," one cop said.

Bikers likely passed by Joe's residence and others hundreds of times without seeing it. It was located below car traffic but above bike and subway traffic.

Police hope to find Joe a safer place to live now that his secret home has been found. He was allowed to keep all of his possessions that were inside. Joe is now spending a lot of time at a 24-hour McDonald's.

One cyclist did recently see another man who was heading back to a home similar to Joe's. The cyclist thought the man was a jumper trying to take his own life and called 911. When police arrived, the man told police he wasn't going to jump; he was just going back to his home.

To see more images of Joe's home and other's like it, click here.