Camper refuses to move after setting up tent in woman's front garden

A mum was left gobsmacked when she found a stranger had pitched a tent in her front garden overnight.

Erika White, 38, was astonished when her son noticed the unexpected setup at dawn, around 6.35am. The audacious camper had chosen the lawn of their end-of-terrace home as his spot for the night.

The bemused finance analyst, who resides in Dartford with her daughter, 7, and two sons aged 14 and 8, opted to challenge the brazen squatter.

Reflecting on the odd occurrence, Erika remarked: "It was the absolute audacity of it. My littlest boy was looking out the window to check the weather, and he said to me, 'Mummy, there's a tent outside'. It literally took up the whole front garden."

Erika confronted the tent dweller and recounted: "I went out. I didn't want to be aggressive. He looked at me. I said, 'Excuse me do you realise you're in my front garden in a tent? Could you move yourself, please? '", reports the Mirror.

To her amazement, the sleepy interloper initially ignored her courteous demand, comfortably settling in with a family-sized strawberry gateaux inside his tent. Erika's Ring doorbell camera failed to capture any movement, which led her to deduce that the intruder must have slyly set up his tent close by and moved it onto her land under the veil of night.

"I remember hearing noises around 5am, but I thought it was just the tumble dryer," Erika further stated.

Erika took matters into her own hands, confronting the squatter at 6.35am and then again at 6.50am. However, it was only at around 7.05am, when she threatened to call the police, that he finally decided to pick up his items and leave.

Puzzled by the unidentified man's behaviour, Erika wondered if perhaps he was a worker from a nearby fruit-picking farm, recalling how several employees frequented the same route. Sharing her thoughts, Erika said: "He was presentable and didn't seem homeless, which made it even more confusing."

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