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Formerly missing boy spent night in shelter

He even looks like I would expect Huckleberry Finn to look.

Well porter, your parents told us to google your name today in choir and thats what i did! haha you are one crazy kid...

Weird story. I'm glad the kids was found. What movie did he see?

I can't believe how lightly people are taking this! A lot of family and friends were so worried about him!!! I think he owes the community an apology.

People endanger their lives looking for missing children like him. I hope he understands how many people he has affected by his little adventure.

What a little idiot. Obviously he cares for nobody but himself. He deserves a good walloping. But his parents will just wink at it and turn a blind eye.

This kid needs professional help!

I think he made some bad choices but I don't see how people endangered their lives looking for him.

Is this kid mental? What makes him think he can take up space in a shelter from someone who really needs the shelter. Someone had to sleep out in the cold because of his selfishness. I hope the authorities charge him for his stay.

To Kate | 8:04 p.m.

I have worked for over 10 years as a private detective. Several of us donate a portion of our time to help search for missing children. We spent some time looking for Porter. Believe me, Salt Lake City at night is not as safe as you might like to believe. I hope kids like this learn their lesson before someone really gets hurt.

No body slept outside that didn't want to. He's an adventursome soul. I love him. He's a good kid if he still went to Church and even worked to buy the right clothes. He's not mental either. Did you ever think about all the consequences of your decisions when you were 17? I didn't. My family were pilots and when I was 17 I decided to leave St. Louis and go shopping in Chicago for the day. I forgot to tell anyone and nobody thought to look for our little taylorcraft missing from its tiedown. I came home totally surprised anyone was upset that they hadn't seen me all day.

I don't know the old Deserted news refuses to post anything I write...but tell me please what on earth is 17 year old boy doing spending the night in a homeless shelter? Shelters are not appropriate places for underage children. Why doesn't somebody say something about the foolish Father and the claim the boy earned money to buy 'church pants'? What a rube!

Wow. It's sad to see what some of you are putting! Just think of when you were 17; wouldn't you have wanted to try things on your own, especially if you're in a very stressful time? You're being way over-dramatic about a simple situation where a kid stays in a shelter one night. Big deal. There are thousands of other things to worry about, and trust me, they are a lot more important.

What is sad is that precious resources were wasted in trying to find him. Hundreds of people go missing everyday and are never found. The police had to leave what they were doing try and find him. What happens next time when someone really is missing or ran away? Will the police not believe them? There should be some repercusions for his actions.

Wow talk about making a big deal about nothing. Sure he wasted money and peoples time but hey, i guarantee you've made some mistakes too. So cut him some slack. That was pretty brave on porters part. I give you some props Porter. Haha

Oh Porter, you are a different one, lol. Glad you weren't hurt, but try to think it through next time. People had nightmares and spent time looking for you kid. It took me more than a little while to look up the story like your mom said to, lol. Everybody chill out, just be glad something didn't happen to this one. Tons of runaways never make it back, even the one-or-two-nighters. It's a scary and sick world out there.

Hey. Seriously. What is the point of living if you don't appreciate what you have. Frankly, it isn't possible to appreciate what you have until you experience not having that "thing". I envy Porter, and I might follow his lead, perhaps not as drastic, but I would love to sample more of life.