Throughout the winter we had a call for 1 of our clients. She was concerned that an individual had moved into her garden shed. As it was the winter she didn't go into the garden as considerably as in the summer months. One weekend she decided to clear up all the fallen apples and pears from the trees. Although she was available she went into the shed and she found some blankets and some takeaway food containers. She believed this was quite strange but believed that perhaps her teenage son and his buddies had had a sleepover in the shed.
She quizzed her son and he stated that they wouldn’t sleep in there as the roof leaked and there was no electricity. The next thing that happened was a little fire had been created in the entrance towards the shed and there had been more blankets and rubbish. She named the Police and they suggested she would get a quicker response if she named us.
We decided to put up a covert camera pointing at the shed to obtain to the bottom of it. Right after a couple of days the tapes showed a filthy young man going into the shed and producing a fire. He sat huddled up by the fire all night. Our client had in no way noticed him just before and as he seemed so young she wanted to assist him. The subsequent night a social worker and our client went out into the garden to see if they could support the young man.
He was fairly polite but looked exhausted. He had run away from his property and had been sleeping rough in our client’s garden and other gardens in the neighbourhood. The social worker told him she could put him into care for the night and sort out his scenario in the morning. He is now with foster parents and performing properly at school.