
Today, during my run, I had an unusual experience. Running along the marsh trails, I spied a one man tent nestled in the bushes to one side of it, along with a bicycle and bike trailer. From the state of the bike and various items in the trailer, it seemed apparent that this belonged to a homeless person. I found it rather odd that the tent was still set up after 2 in the afternoon. This began to worry me, as I continued my run, as we had a cold, hard frost the evening before and it occurred to me that the occupant of the tent might have succumbed to hypothermia. When I passed by on my way back, the tent was still up.
I called out to the tent, asking if anyone was in there. No response. I called again louder, as I approached. Still, no response. I called out, explaining that I just wanted to check if the occupant was alright. Silence.
Left with little recourse, I loudly explained that I was going to open the tent to see if the occupant was okay. I was stealing myself for two possibilities of what I might find inside, a paranoid hostile homeless person (possibly armed with a knife) or, worse, a corpse.
The tent was empty.
Needless to say, I was relieved. It hadn't occurred to me that someone might sent up a tent and just leave it where it could be easily discovered. It did make sense in a way; bringing all that gear into town whilst panhandling could be problematic, especially if one got rousted by the police. However, all the homeless people I've known have been pretty paranoid about leaving their stuff unguarded. Usually, if they're forced to do so, they take pains to hide it, which wasn't the case here. Maybe they're more trusting around these parts. I suppose I may never know. *shrugs*
I just hope that my fears concerning the tent's owner never come to pass.