A Homeless Girl?

[Engage!]

This will seem really weird and out of place, and it seems to be the icing on the cake with all of the recent wacky events going on. When it rains, it pours.

First off, it was unusual that my wife and I were both done with work at 5, because we almost always have to stay later. Leaving early didn't do us any good, because we got caught in the massive Friday night five o' clock rush hour, which practically stalled the freeway. When we pulled off the freeway to take the smaller road to our run-down little neighborhood, there was a girl by the side of the road with a cardboard sign that read "Seeking food and housing - Will work!" My first thought was "Oh, homeless. I haven't seen one for a while." My wife wanted to stop, and I was kind of against it, but I pulled over anyway. As we talked to this girl, my wife invited her home - without asking me! Of course, since the invitation was given it would have been rude of me to negate it, but it kind of ticked me off.

So, as I sit here typing, there is a girl sleeping on the couch in the living room. I don't know how old she is, but she doesn't look any older than about 16. Brown hair, brown eyes, looks slightly Hispanic, but I'm not sure. She didn't say anything about where she comes from, only that she has nowhere to go. She is lucky that some guy wasn't looking for an attractive young victim, because where we are she might not have lasted through the night.

I've got alot of worries because I don't know anything about this girl. Why does my wife insist on taking care of her? How old is she really? What's she running from? Is she dangerous? How long will she stay? I've already insisted on doing a security frisk to make sure she has no guns or knives on her, and I'm not worried that she'll steal anything because there isn't anything of value to steal. Also, will having a new girl in the apartment make it so that my wife and I can no longer have sex in our normal way?

I'm just dazed and confused.

[oedipussy]

That's pretty nice of your wife, man. I wouldn't worry about it too much, she is just a human after all. I've gotta commend you both for offering your home to someone in need. I was semi-homeless once (lived out of my car, but it was my choice) and it definitely wasn't fun.

As for all of your questions about her, you'll never know unless you ask her. If she's going to be staying with you for awhile, you may as well get better acquainted with her.

[wellmannered_squirrel]

I don't think your primary concern should be sex dear engage!

If the girl is really 16, you should give a call to a special child organization or the cops or anything. It kinda sucks to do it, especially if the girl asks you not to but you can get in serious trouble if you don't.

[CrazyJenny]

Well, my mother always told me never to pick up hitchhikers and that sort of thing, but I think you go a bit too far. After all, from what I've read you're a security guard and you're able to tackle armed intruders. What do you have to worry about from a helpless girl that you've already frisked anyway? I'd be worried that you frightened her. I hope you weren't in uniform with your gun!

Tomorrow you can ask her some more detailed questions about her age and stuff, but don't overdo it.

About your wife - she must have a kind heart, but it would annoy me too if someone I was living with invited someone without checking with me first. Still, what can you do? Give her a chance, and you might end up liking this girl.

[oedipussy]

Yeah, who knows, maybe she'll become an important part of your family. Like when the Seavers adopted Leonardo Dicaprio. Good times...

[Raidenator]

It was a nice thing, but what can ya do? Do you guys plan on taking care of her until she finds her own way? Adopting her as your own?

I would say that you need to call Child Services or whoever you need to contact. It just isn't wise to pick up a person like that, no matter how harmless they may appear. On the other hand though, you should find out more about her. Find out why she's on the street, who she is, where her family is, etc. She may be a runaway?

[oedipussy]

OK now, let's have some compassion and hold off on calling the authorities for awhile (legal information on this below). This isn't as simple as taking a lost puppy to the pound - try to find out more about her and her story before you decide to do anything. For all we know, her parents could be dead.

If this is indeed just a runaway, legally, you can provide her "temporary sanctuary" for 72 hours and not commit a crime. Even if you exceed that, ONLY IF you have knowledge that she is being sought after by the police will you have commited a crime, and even then it's just a misdemeanor, not to mention pretty much impossible to prove in court. I highly doubt, even if the police suspected that you had broken this law, that they would bother to charge you, much less pursue prosecution. The law on this may or may not slightly vary from state to state but what I've written on it seems to be universal. So you should be fine. Hope that helps ease your mind a little...

[sera300]

There is no point where he needs to be compassionate--not here in this situation. First and foremost he needs to protect his wife and baby. End of story.

Generally homeless have other issues that go along with their situation. Call the Cops or CPS; or give her some cash and send her on her way. Get her out of your home. There are things called homeless shelters and food kitchens, take her to the local church for help if you need. Would you not be surprised if she was turning tricks & her johns knew where you live...just AWOL'ed out of drug rehab, was psychotic, etc. This is dangerous behavior.

Get smart guys...this shows bad judgement.

[eminatic]

if you are allowing some homeless girl to stay in your home, you have every right to ask her anything and expect some answers.

[Engage!]

Ok, I got some information from her. I was fortunate to only have to go to work this afternoon, so I had some time off.

The girl is indeed a runaway. However, she has her driver's license with her, and it shows that she is 17, and only a month away from her eighteenth birthday. She ran away two weeks ago, and has been on the road ever since.

When I came back from work this evening, I found my wife and the girl in the kitchen together making dinner. Apparently she can cook pretty well. My wife did her laundry, but she only had the shirt and pants she had on and a dirty and torn shirt and shorts in her backpack. She won't tell yet why she left other than that her father hates her, and when my wife got her some clean clothes she noticed that this girl is covered in fading bruises.

My take on the situation is that she comes from an abusive home with a father who hits her, and that one day things got so bad that she had to leave immediately. She has a small backpack with her that I assume was once filled with whatever she could grab on her way out. I don't think she's an addict or a prostitute, and she doesn't seem dangerous. I searched her very carefully and there weren't any drugs, and the sharpest thing she had was a broken pencil. As far as I'm concerned, she's safe. Even if she was a prostitute, I doubt any johns could have tracked us here because she's so far from where we picked her up. Even if they did, it would be stupid of them to cross a perpetually armed security officer and his armed wife.

Now that I've had a day to think about it, I have a plan. This girl can stay with us at least until she turns eighteen. That way, if her father is abusive like I suspect, she won't ever have to endure it again. If she wants to, she can stay at our apartment during the day, or (and I will encourage this option) she can take an available custodian position at our office. Good pay, decent hours, and regular wages. And my wife and I can take her to work, which will give her something to do. Also, my wife is protecting this girl so that even if I wanted to, I couldn't remove her from our lives, and the girl is such a frightened clingy little thing that she has almost immediately latched onto my wife as the "big sister" type.