"Seasteading" pioneers Chad Elwartowski and Nadia Supranee Thepdet thought they were going to live the perfect life when they decided to move into a floating cabin on the high seas outside Thailand's territorial waters.
But after the Thai authorities branded their home a danger to shipping and a threat to its sovereignty, the couple are now on the run from police.
US media said the pair, who were early adopters of bitcoin, could be charged with treason, punishable in Thailand by the death penalty or life imprisonment.
New movement
They are part of a new movement aiming to colonise the seas with self-sufficient homes.
A video posted online seems to have alerted the authorities to the pair's new lifestyle.
However, when police raided the structure, it was empty except for some dried food.
Elwartowski has said the couple are safe.
“Whether [the seastead] is still there or not does not matter much to me. I’m more concerned about Nadia being driven from her home country and her family,” he wrote on Facebook.
“But as long as Nadia and I are able to live through this, that is all that matters to us right now. We just want to live."
The home, built by a company called Ocean Builders, is 24 nautical miles from Phuket. This is outside territorial waters, but inside the exclusive economic zone.
The Thai navy has said the structure interferes with one of the country’s shipping lanes and must be destroyed.
