YouTuber and Denver based advocate for the homeless Regan Benson faced a scary situation on Saturday when the homeless man she was helping began to suffer from diabetic complications while awaiting service at a police station in Denver’s District 4.
Benson was helping a man identified as Charlie Scandiff, who was living in his car with his two cats after police condemned his apartment for methamphetamine contamination. Benson had alleged that police falsified the contamination after searching the apartment after a neighbor said that an unknown man had run into the apartment.
The apartment was condemned on November 7, 2025, and Scandiff was not allowed to retrieve personal belongings or his insulin from the apartment by police. He had lived in the apartment for 15 years and admitted that he had friends who had connections to activities that the police were interested in.
Benson was attempting to help Standoff retrieve his driver’s license, which was taken by a police detective who had helped search his apartment. The detective never returned the identification, making it more difficult for Scandiff to obtain help to find a new place to live.
The pair were at the police station in Denver’s District 4 since Scandiff’ s apartment was located in that district. Benson approached the officer working the counter to inquire about the two detectives working the event at Scandiff’s house.
The officer determined that the detective who had taken the ID worked out of Denver’s District 3. Benson worried out loud that she would be ineffective in getting Scandiff’s identification back as she was currently suing officers in the District 3 command structure.
When Benson inquired about getting a copy of Scandiff’s ID from the district 4 officer, that officer said that she would be unable to help Benson with that. The officer then referred Benson to District 3 for further help.
Benson essentially got the runaround when she called District 3. The detective who took the identification and his superior were both off on the weekend and she was transferred to voice mail of someone who supposedly could help her.
When she tried to call back, no one picked up the phone on the original line, prompting her to call the non-emergency line to find help. She would eventually bypass the operator, get a supervisor, then get answering machine when she was referred to someone who could help her.
During this time, Scandiff began to experience problems related to his diabetes. He was disoriented and refused to go to the hospital to get insulin, after revealing that he had not had his insulin since leaving his apartment.
Benson asked the officer at the front desk to call paramedics while she called Scandiff’s son, to try to find a spot for Scandiff’s cats should he be hospitalized.
When the paramedics arrived Scandiff was completely disoriented and did not know what day it was, what year it was nor who was the president. The elderly man expressed concern that if he want to the hospital, they’d involuntarily keep him and he’d be stuck in the hospital and miss his opportunity to get housing.
Both Benson and a female paramedic explained that he could leave the emergency room or hospital at any time as he was mentally competent. Scandiff claimed that he had a doctor’s appointment on Wednesday, and the female paramedic said that he would not make it that long without insulin.
The paramedics convinced Scandiff to get checked out in their ambulance while Benson made another call to Scandiff’s son. During that call, Benson received a call from a sergeant in Denver’s District 3.
That sergeant was surprisingly helpful and offered to call over to District 4 and talk to the commander about getting District 4 to put up Scandiff in a hotel should he not go to the hospital.
Benson called Scandiff’s son, who confirmed he found someone to take his father’s cats, and the as they were talking, the district 3 Sergeant called her to confirm that District 4 had agreed to get Scandiff a hotel. She thanked the man and went outside to talk with Scandiff, who had now convinced the paramedics that he would seek help on his own, and his son.
When the elder Scandiff and Benson returned to the lobby of he District 4 police station, the female officer informed them that the District 4 commander had agreed to put Scandiff up in an extended stay hotel overnight.
Through some back and forth between Benson, the female officer and the commander, that was extended to two days, with a request that Scandiff return to meet with their homeless advocate to find a long term solution on Monday.
The livestream ended with Benson waiting for an officer to drive over with the pair to set up Scandiff’s hotel stay.
