morning, next door neighbor did something about the government leaking information. i said, what? >> reporter: he was working here, the honolulu office of government contractor and global consultancy. in a statement, the company had said he had been there for less than three months. >> over time, that awareness of wrongdoing sort of builds up and you feel compelled to talk about it, and the more you talk about it, the more you're ignored and told it's not a problem, until eventually you realize these things need to be determined by the public, not by somebody hired by the government. >> reporter: snowden told the government he copied documents, but exactly when is unclear. we do know he asked for time off and moved out of his home here in early may, according to the guardian. he told his boss he needed a couple of weeks off for medical treatment as he suffered from epilepsy. he left hawaii for hong kong on may 20th. it appears no one was the wiser