Something Wicked This Way Went?

Today at work, we had an interesting distraction. The building I work in is a suite of offices. It's a relatively small, but long building that houses suites A,B,C,D, & E. Each suite has office or storefront space in front and warehouse-type space in back. I work in suite A. At the other end of the building is a business that occupies suites D & E. THAT is where today's action took place.

I wasn't immediately aware of the activity. One of my coworkers came in about 10:00am and told me that the police were checking out the dumpster near suite E. It's the dumpster for our entire building, and it is partially obscured from the street by a clump of bushes. I'm not sure who called it in, but it turned out that someone had deposited a gray, curb-side type of garbage receptacle into our dumpster. That was odd enough, but the gray garbage container was wrapped and sealed in plastic. This happened to be the usual day the truck comes to empty the dumpster. So perhaps it was the sanitation workers who first saw the suspicious sight and called the police. Of course the first thought my twisted, mystery-minded brain came up with was, "Gee, I wonder if it's a body!? And why would they have chosen this specific dumpster? There are other dumpsters up and down the street that are more visible and more accessible, so who would have chosen this one?" You see how my spooky mind works.

Over the course of about an hour to an hour & a half, the saga unfolded. Once the police got there, I guess they did some investigation to determine that the parcel wasn't booby-trapped. Then they managed to extract the gray container out of the dumpster. They set it in front of the dumpster. Of course, I had to be indoors during most of this . . . I was at work after all. So I was periodically looking out my window or poking my head out the door to see what else was going on. I happened to step outside to check on things just as they were about to unveil the mysterious container. One of the sanitation workers tore open the plastic . . . and stepped back. There was a look of disgust on his face. I thought, "It's got to be awfully bad if that guy is grossed-out! After all, he deals with stinky trash everyday!"

The police officer stepped forward a step, as if to see through the top. But the lid was not yet opened. The one sanitation worker stepped forward again, very carefully. It was as if he expected something to jump out . . . or worse! He apprehensively opened the lid and flipped it backwards. The other nearby sanitation worker looked horrified. He ran from the container and over to the bushes and he puked. Meanwhile the first sanitation worker had a rag up to his face, covering his nose and mouth. He stepped forward and peered into the gray receptacle. He reached in and grabbed out a small, closed garbage bag and tossed it into the dumpster. It made a metallic clank-sound as it hit the side. He reached in again and grabbed out some Styrofoam pieces that appeared to have once been a cooler. He tossed those into the dumpster. Then he stepped closer and peered deeper into the trash can. He began pointing at something inside and saying something to the nearby police officer. I couldn't hear what he was saying, but he repeatedly pointed and backed away. There seemed to be a bit of urgency to his communication.

After a few times of pointing at the contents, I suppose the officer told him to get it out. The sanitation man moved closer and freakishly pushed at the gray trash can and tipped it over. At that point, my coworker and I could see a medium-sized, white trash bag lumped in the bottom of the container. I assessed the sight and decided, "Hummm, I suppose it could be a body, curled up maybe." Just then the wind shifted, and we got our first odoriferous whiff of the cargo. It was awful!! This is the part you don't get from watching CSI! I understood why the other sanitation worker had lost his breakfast! It was truly nasty. Then the wind thankfully shifted again. The officer stood by and supervised as the sanitation man continued poking at the bag and trying to pull it forward and out of the overturned container. They finally pulled it forward enough that I suppose they decided they could see through the bag well enough. Deciding it might be somewhat safe to open the bag, they declared it was old, rotten, discarded steaks. After making their declaration, they pushed the bag back into the gray garbage container and hoisted the entire thing back into the dumpster. They dusted off their hands as if to say, "Good riddance!" Then they talked and laughed a bit. I would imagine it was a huge relief to the sanitation worker.

Since the story seemed to be resolved, my coworker and I went back inside, and yes, back to work. I kept expecting to hear the loud, heavy garbage truck to drive through the parking lot to empty the dumpster. I never did hear them come through. Thinking that perhaps I was in the warehouse when they came through, I decided to look outside and see if the infamous gray garbage can was gone. It's still there!!!!!!!! It's still in the dumpster, just as they left it! So, it would appear that they intend to leave it there over the weekend! Great! Sometimes the workings of the city services really astonish me.

So that was our excitement for the day. Sad, I know . . . that trash would elicit such drama! haha I know, I watch too much NCIS and CSI. But these days, you just never know! What was possibly some scary, wicked drama with much at stake, turned out to be nothing major and only discarded steak.

Wishing you a good and uneventful weekend!
~Paulena