Man Lived On The Streets For 30 Years, Then A Cop Realized Who He Was

Mick Myers had been living on the streets for so long that he barely knew who he was anymore. But while it was often a solitary existence, he did see some people he recognized now and again. One of them was Deputy Sheriff Jacob Swalwell, who had repeatedly warned Mick about his panhandling. But when he became tired of giving the same old spiel to Mick, the cop decided to do a little digging into the homeless man’s past...

Bleak past

Mick did remember what life had been like as a kid. He had been adopted as a two-year-old and had grown up in San Leandro, CA. But he had never been fully accepted by the family that had taken him in. And after his adoptive parents passed away, his siblings turned their backs on him — leaving Mick to fend for himself.

Isolated and alone

Mick lost contact with his childhood friends, too, and he found himself struggling to make ends meet on his own. Eventually, he found work as a truck driver and was able to bring in a little bit of money — enough to get by. Still, he just couldn’t seem to shake off those feelings of isolation and heartache.

Playing music to survive

And although Mick worked hard, he eventually lost his job driving. Unable to find employment elsewhere, he soon found himself living on the streets, panhandling and playing music to survive. But everything changed in November 2017 when he crossed paths — yet again — with Deputy Sheriff Swalwell. The cop had long been asking him to change his ways.

A cop steps in

This time, however, Deputy Sheriff Swalwell decided that he had to escalate matters. He was going to hit Mick with a citation. “I had given him so many warnings,” he told KPIX-TV in 2018. “And I asked him for his ID, and he said he didn’t have an ID. And I immediately asked ‘Why don’t you have an ID?’”