A teenager told Oklahoma police he slept in a toilet paper fort inside a Walmart after running away from his grandparents’ home.
Christopher Dunham, 16, was reported missing by the couple on Sunday when he vanished from their Hazel Road home in Grove.
The mystery disappearance took a turn when the teenager was seen attempting to sneak back into the family home on Tuesday night after officers had served a search warrant at the property.
Grove Police Chief Mark Morris believes the teenager may have been watching the house, as his attempt to re-enter the home coincided with the last officer leaving the premises.
After the family eventually reunited, Dunham’s grandfather later brought the teen into the police station where he recounted his days-long disappearance.
Dunham told police that he built a fort out of toilet paper inside the Walmart store and slept in a dog bed, KSNF reported.
The police chief said Dunham’s grandparents made searching for the teen difficult as they told police they didn’t want his photograph released, citing ‘extended family issues’.
‘They weren’t very cooperative,’ Morris told the outlet.
Christopher Dunham, 16, was reported missing by the couple on Sunday when he vanished from their Hazel Road home in Grove
Dunham told police after hours he would build a toilet paper fort in the toilet paper aisle inside the Walmart store, using a dog bed to sleep in (stock photo)
A Grove police officer and a Department of Human Services child worker were the first to arrive at the grandparents’ home on Tuesday afternoon when they were denied entrance, prompting police to get a search warrant.
Around 7:30pm later that night, police arrived ready to serve the search warrant.
However, even with the newly obtained warrant, police were ‘met with hostility’ and once again denied entrance into the home, according to the police chief.
After negotiating with Dunham’s grandparents, authorities were permitted to search the home, a pickup truck parked outside and the backyard.
Morris told reporters the case is one of the most obscure he’s ever been faced with.
‘This is one of the most bizarre cases in my law enforcement career,’ Morris told KSFN16.
Morris says electronics, cameras and cell phones were also seized in the search.
A DHS official will meet with the teen on Wednesday, Morris said, saying the teen displayed ‘minor’ injuries.
‘He may have a minor case of frostbite on his toes,’ Morris told the outlet. ‘It is unknown if this was related to this runaway or a previous incident.’
A Grove police officer and a Department of Human Services child worker were initially denied entrance into the home on Tuesday, prompting police to get a search warrant. Pictured: Grove Police executing the search warrant on Tuesday night
Officers also searched a pickup truck at the residence looking for evidence
The incident comes over a year after a neighbor who lives near the Dunhams ‘got into an argument’ with the boy’s grandparents last summer over his wellbeing.
They claimed Dunham was seen outside mowing the lawn during a 115 degree heat index.
The worry-stricken neighbors later expressed their concern to the boy’s grandparents before they ‘became combative’.
Another unidentified neighbor came forward just as police were ending the search around 10:15 pm, to claim the grandparents had locked the teen out of the house one night when it was ‘pouring rain outside and cold.’
‘He was outside crying and begging to be let back inside,’ the neighbor told police.
‘We heard his crying and her yelling at him to shut up.’
The grandmother eventually let the teen back inside the house, the neighbors claimed, KFOR.com reported.
The neighbor said she confronted the grandmother the following day.
The grandmother had claimed they ‘didn’t know how to handle him,’ according to the neighbor.
