Rhonda Kraft, who owns the Alley Barber Shop off Coinagehall Street was shocked when she arrived for work this morning to find a homeless man living outside her business. She said the incident has left her frightened and angry.
Her way was blocked by the rubbish and human waste and she says a man in a wheelchair living there was abusive to her when she asked him to move it.
The barbershop is situated down the alley off Coinagehall Street(Image: Google Streetview)
She said as well as the rubbish there was human excrement, food waste, and it “absolutely stunk” of pee which was all over the floor.
“Nobody could go in there,” she said. She was confronted by a man in a wheelchair and she asked if it was his rubbish.
“He said ‘Yeah’, and I said ‘would you be able to clear it up because I work here and customers can’t come up and down the alley’. He started swearing at me and telling me he was homeless, and he’s got a right to shelter.
The note Laura posted in her window(Image: Facebook)
“I said ‘Yes, you have but you’ve no right to throw your rubbish in the alleyway, it’s a private alleyway and I can’t get my customers through there’.”
She said he then started swearing at her and becoming abusive towards her. She asked him if he’d like her to phone homeless charity St Petroc’s which, she said, just made him even more angry and he started “effing and blinding” at her.
She went into her shop and realised she had excrement on her shoes when she walked through.
She went through the alley to the town council clerk’s office really shaken and the town clerk told her to dial 999 as they said it was a serious situation.
Rubbish in the alley at lunchtime today(Image: Staff)
She said she was frightened to go back again so the town warden said he’d take her round in his van. They went down to the alleyway and although the man had gone, his stuff was still there.
The warden stood at the entrance to the alley to warn people as it wasn’t safe to go down there because of all the excrement on the floor.
But after an hour with no sign of the police despite two police cars going by he suggested that she went home.
“I was in the shop of two hours waiting for the police, but nobody got back to me, despite promising to,” said Rhonda.
“I work on my own, I was really, really frightened. I’m shaken and really, really angry that somebody has not let me got to work and I am angry because I have had no support from anybody, except the town clerk, she was amazing. She did what she could, but she couldn’t do anything else.”
She said it was not safe for her to return. The alley is part of the route to the town car park and is used by shoppers.
“All I want to do is go back to work,” she said.
When a Packet reporter went to the site at lunchtime a police officer was in attendance.
A spokesperson for Devon and Cornwall Police told the Packet officers attended and located the man nearby.
“We were called at 12.45pm on Friday 12 September following a report of a man causing a disturbance in Meneage Street, Helston,” they said.
“No offences were reported but the man was given words of advice regarding his conduct.”
Helston’s Town Council clerk told the Packet it wasn’t actually her that helped but a member of her staff.
She said if anyone else finds themselves in a similar position she would encourage them to call 999.