Woman Discovers Teen Sleeping in Her Yard. What She Did Next Goes Viral (Exclusive)

Elly Pimentel first noticed the teen in August

• In August, Elly Pimentel first noticed a teenager sleeping on some cinder blocks by the side of the road

• Since it was the middle of summer, the Washington State local thought the teen might have just come back from football practice. But after she continued to see him, she grew increasingly concerned

• By September, Pimentel decided to take action and left him some items with a note. She posted about it on TikTok, in a video that has since gone viral

Elly Pimentel was pulling out of her driveway in August when she noticed a teenager sleeping on some cinder blocks by the side of the road.

Since it was the middle of summer, the Washington State local thought he might have just come back from football practice. "I was in marching band," Pimentel, a mother of two, tells PEOPLE. "I get it. My stoop is your stoop. It's free stoops."

However, as the 31-year-old continued to see the boy, she grew increasingly concerned. One day, while walking with her kids to a local establishment, she made eye contact with him. "There was just a mutual 'I see you,' " she recalls. "He looked very cautious. He was looking at me, and I was looking at him."

By September, Pimentel had seen the teen often enough to notice he looked rougher than before. While she didn't want to overstep and involve herself in his life, she felt something was off. Then, one day that month, after spotting him on a property adjacent to hers, she closed her garage door and thought, "I should do something."

"There was a very clear division in my head where I am a person and that is a person, and we are both fending for ourselves in this world," she says. "Then the immediate next thought was, 'Okay, but what if this goes south?' That's when I picked up my phone and decided to record whatever it was I was going to do."

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Related: Mom Sends Daughter, 2, Walking to Grandparents' Door with Note After Sleepless Night (Exclusive)

Putting herself in his shoes, she thought about the temperatures and how hard the cinder blocks must be. She went inside, retrieved an extra sleeping bag, a pillow and a waterproof backpack. Pimentel, who works for Adventurer Manufacturing, filled the bag with cans of soup, spoons, napkins and other essentials, then added a note and sealed everything in a plastic bin.

"I wrote a note in both English and Spanish," she says. "I wanted to convey that this wasn't a trap. I don’t have extensive experience with the unhoused population, but I know there's a level of caution that comes with living from moment to moment."

"I was trying to walk a fine line between making this available to him without any strings attached. I’m doing it because I see you, and if this benefits you, great. If you want to continue sleeping on the stoop, that’s fine too. But if you'd like to improve your situation, here are these things, with no pressure either way."

After gathering the items, Pimentel knew she needed to place them somewhere safe from theft. Initially, she left the bin outside her fence, but after the boy didn’t show up for days, she realized it was at risk of being stolen or removed by landscapers. Inside the fence seemed like the only viable option. To ensure the landscapers wouldn’t disturb the tote — or him — when they came on Wednesdays, she taped a large waterproof note to the lid.

A few days later, she found a note taped to her door, written on a piece of receipt paper, thanking her for the items. The teen had also tried to talk to her in person — he'd actually rung her doorbell, she later realized. Although they continued communicating through notes, they didn't speak face-to-face until later in October.

"When we eventually chatted in person, he shared a bit of his story with me," she says. "I did my best to keep that information confidential. He has been very vulnerable and shared sensitive details."

"That led to a 90-minute conversation where he laid out what was going on," she continues. "I made him aware that we would need to take next steps. I started calling resources and gathering information for that next step."

Throughout the back-and-forth, Pimentel continued to film and eventually posted the videos on TikTok, where they have since gone viral. She tells PEOPLE that this was completely different from anything she had ever posted before, and while she wasn't sure if she should post, she felt the TikTok community could provide her with advice on the situation.

Since posting, she says the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. "A lot of people have said that I've done a good thing or have complimented me as a person, when I’ve literally done the bare minimum," she says. "Many people are praising me for this, and I’d say the majority of the comments reflect that. That’s not why I did it, but I appreciate all the good feedback."

"I keep the content up for the discussions happening in the comments, where people are sharing their experiences," she adds. "Some suggest things like, 'Just let him live with you' or 'Just buy him a tent.' It’s fascinating to see this discourse unfold, with people navigating similar questions — like whether to use a sleeping bag or a pillow. They’re collectively working through some of the dilemmas I faced in just a split second."

Pimentel also notes that people in the comments have begun sharing their own experiences with homelessness. Having grown up in foster care, before being permanently re-homed before her first day of 2nd grade, she finds it comforting to know she has created a space where strangers feel comfortable opening up.

She adds that she’s taken this opportunity to educate her young children. At one point, they asked, “Mom, why are you leaving this note here?” She explained that she had seen a boy in need and was leaving a note for him, hoping he would read it and write back.

“I try to have conversations with my children about noticing things and putting themselves in someone else's shoes,” she says. “Ultimately, I hope that’s what people take away from my experience."

"I think the overarching theme has been to just notice what’s around us," she adds. "If you can do the bare minimum, why not? I shared my ‘get ready with me’ or ‘pack a trip with me’ videos, and we watch countless videos like that. It’s easy to simply grab what you have if that’s what you want to do. But even if you can’t take further action, just noticing is important. Even taking the first step of recognizing someone as a fellow human is significant progress."

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