A team of nine gardaí that had been tasked with securing the return of a missing 14-year-old boy from a house found him hiding under a blanket in a wardrobe on Thursday morning.The boy, in State care since April, had been missing since last Wednesday when he ran away after appearing at the children’s court in relation to a criminal case.At a sitting of the Family Law Court on Thursday, the teenager’s appointed Tusla social-care worker confirmed the boy had been found. He said at 8.10am, nine gardaí went to the home where Tusla believed he was residing.Officers mounted the operation after Judge Adrian Harris granted a warrant on Wednesday to the Child and Family Agency, to allow gardaí enter the home.Harris granted the warrant after Tusla told the court it had obtained information that indicated the teenager was residing at the address, including a Snapchat message.Describing Thursday morning’s events, the Tusla worker said that on arrival, the woman residing in the home said the boy was not there.The social care worker said the boy has a friend living at the house. However, the friend said he had not spoken with the 14-year old over the past five weeks.Gardaí proceeded with the search and found the boy “hiding in the wardrobe covering himself with a blanket”.The Tusla worker said the woman in the house told gardaí she had been unaware of the boy’s presence there. She suggested that her son might have brought him into the house the previous night without her knowledge.The social care worker said he spoke with the 14-year-old at the local Garda station “and he was very disappointed. He was tired and he expressed his desire to sleep and wanted his phone back as soon as possible”.He said he declined breakfast and was taken back to his placement and was there by 11.22am. He said additional security has been put in place at the boy’s accommodation to safeguard against him going missing again.Solicitor Mary Cuffe, for the parents, said they find their son’s situation “very, very distressing”.“They love him obviously and they would love to have him at home, but can’t have him at home,” she said. “They are very afraid of what is going to happen next.”She said she was not reassured at all that there won’t be a repeat of the boy absconding.The fact he was in this house for so long is a concern for the parents, she said. She said the boy’s texts to his parents are “absolutely terrible”, threatening them if they came near the house and using very bad language.Cuffe said the boy “is enjoying the attention to a certain degree”.The parents “do feel there is hope for this boy if he was in the right placement and had the right support and had the right setup”.“There have been times he has been okay but it has gone down a slippery path and on and on it goes,” Cuffe said.In April, Tusla secured an emergency care order after the teen “completely destroyed” his home in a row sparked over his mother refusing to return his mobile phone to him.Judge Harris extended the boy’s interim care order to July 24th.