In the course of the winter we had a call for one of our customers. She was concerned that somebody had moved into her garden shed. As it was the winter she didn't go into the garden as much as inside the summer months. One weekend she decided to clear up all of the fallen apples and pears from the trees. Whilst she was on the market she went into the shed and she identified some blankets and some takeaway food containers. She thought this was quite strange but thought that possibly her teenage son and his buddies had had a sleepover within 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 factor that happened was a tiny fire had been made inside the entrance towards the shed and there were far more blankets and rubbish. She called the Police and they suggested she would get a quicker response if she named us.
We decided to put up a covert camera pointing in the shed to get to the bottom of it. Right after a couple of days the tapes showed a filthy young man going into the shed and generating a fire. He sat huddled up by the fire all night. Our client had in no way seen him prior to and as he seemed so young she wanted to help him. The next night a social worker and our client went out into the garden to see if they could aid the young man.
He was really polite but looked exhausted. He had run away from his home and had been sleeping rough in our client’s garden and other gardens inside the neighbourhood. The social worker told him she could put him into care for the night and sort out his situation within the morning. He is now with foster parents and doing well at school.
Detective Agency Stoke-on-Trent