Wow...you're hardcore. You dipped your finger in a puddle of probable piss to investigate.

Dedication folks. Dedication.

Remind me not to shake your hand if we ever meet.

Now, why-oh-why would you touch it?

Come to think of it, if Brooklyn smells like piss, perhaps your nose is so accustomed to the odor of piss, you would be unable to notice its' subtleties during a smell test? Like working in a fish factory...you get used to the stank, and eventually stop smelling it...correct?

Should've taken some home to the lab to verify

For the record, I'm the editor in charge of things that don't involve touching the piss of government employees. It's in my contract.

WhyTF would you touch it..... You all are crazy... lol

Oh its piss, and I knew plenty of guys on the routes who used to do it.

You cant take your truck back to the station to pee (well you can but depending on your route it could take you 30-45 minutes to get there and back, added to your time) the trucks have no bathroom, and there are a lot of stores these days who will not let you come in to just take a leak.

What I used to do was depending on where I was go to a Dunkin Donuts or my house, or if I was on the rural route just go to one of the dirt clearings around the way to piss on a tree. But I knew plenty of guys (especially the older ones who had medical issues) who would just pee in a bottle and toss it when they got home.

That being said, I have a feeling Brooklyns piss smell has a lot more to do with the number of bums you guys have than the one or two postal guys who might be stupid enough to dump a piss filled glove.

Oh and if your willing to enough, you can tell your Postmaster General. Pretty good cause for a reprimand or a firing.

But there's a woman crossing the street between the lines, can't be brooklyn -- fake!

Brooklynites are gonna love that headline.

Love it, love it, love it. I am telling you.

Only in New York. I guess he used up his daily quota of bathroom breaks. Those union rules can be tough.

I was a cable splicers helper for the phone company in North Philadelphia. We had a box truck pretty similar to the postal truck in the picture, except ours was full of tools and a workbench. We had a cabinet in the back, when you opend the door there was a funnel with a piece of hose that drained out a hole in the floor to underneath the truck. No one ever thought anything of the puddle left behind by the truck. Lots of cars leave puddles condensation from the air conditioner.

Also, this wasn't official company policy or something that came standard on the trucks. It was just something guys who work outside do to make life easier.

i see leaking bottles of what can only be piss all over brooklyn and the other boroughs. we as a city are too immature for clean public bathrooms, really. i once saw a parked garbage truck in park slope and the driver rolled the window down and chucked his trash onto the sidewalk. a garbage truck! new york is definitely the dirtiest city i have ever been to and it is 99% because its residents just do not give a shit about their streets. i see people throw crap on the ground all the time, when they are very close to trash cans. sad shit.

Smell the Glove!

So what DID the liquid smell like?

Victory.

@timmus: There was no discernible odor.

Thankfully Ben isn't really hardcore... He didn't taste it after all.

Coming to a theater near you, Ben Popken and Meghann Marco star in

ONE HAND PISSES ON THE OTHER

It was an ordinary day in Brooklyn, the smell of decay was everywhere, rabid squirrels attacked tourists, and horses made sure to rhythmically defecate on street-corners as their coaches en route, followed behind, but that smell was about to get that...much...worse...

Ben Popken and Meghann Marco made their way downtown for a Quiznos Pita sandwhich like any other day, but this day would be...quite random

Scenario: about to cross the street, Ben's friendly neighborhood mail-man drove on past

**SPLAT**

Mail-man: THAT AOL POST WAS SUB-PAR POPKEN!!! AND VERIZON'S TEXT MESSAGING I...(Inaudible noise due to mail-truck's motor)

Ben: What is that Meghann?! That mail-man just dropped his glove in front of us, and it exploded with some yell...hey...it's yellow...could it be...urine...

Meghan: EWWWWW BEN!!! Don't touch it!! That guy coulda had AY...

Ben: Quiet Marco!! I must touch and smell every bit of this yellow liquid...it could be...news...

***TO BE CONTINUED***

Don't blame me... I only piss in the street when I'm in Manhattan. Never publicly urinate in your own borough.

@ Tallanvor: I love how amazingly dedicated the Consumerist writers are. But y'know. I just don't want them to be /that/ dedicated for us.

@harumph: I agree with the spirit of this comment. It's not the urine-or-whatever that bothers me, it's the rubber glove litter.

You should have taken the glove, tracked down the offending postman, and shoved it in his face while lecturing him about littering.

@Ben Popken: I think all you proved was that s/he did not eat asparagus the night before. Not exactly the most relevant information. I agree. I didn't have to be there - and thankfully I wasn't - to know.... it was piss.

@Clevertrousers: Agreed!

A lesson learned from 10th grade chemistry: always WAFT

@not_seth_brundle:
it's both, the only reason you feel like you need to wash your hands the second you get home here is because the city is such a shit-hole. also whenever we get a windy day there is a trash tornado on every block. it just isn't so hard to piss in a toilet and throw your trash in a can. there are cans everywhere and there are residential cans everywhere too if you can't find a city can. i have never understood the mindset.

The only way to be absolutely sure is to drink the glove.

:eek:

Good thing you didn't step in it!

(sorry, old joke, couldn't resist)

And you should have tagged it with this:
http://consumerist.com/consumer/trucker-bombs/

I am so sorry I know this, but fresh urine from a healthy person shouldn't smell like anything. It's the degradation of the ammonia in the urine that makes it smell. Go back in a couple of hours and sniff again.

Touching it generally won't hurt you any, either. The grossness is in your head. That's a lot harder to wash off, though.

Of course he peed in his glove. He threw away his empty snapple bottle without thinking!

I have been to Brooklyn twice (for shows at Southpaw). Each time I have seen someone pissing on the subway stairs. One of them even followed me! Gross! NYC is a dirty city. But I love it.

once i went to the bathroom and saw what i thought was urine on the toilet seat. not content with my visual inspection i put my finger in it and smelt it. it was urine.

@etinterrapax: Also from the Department of Way Too Much Information, it depends on how hydrated he was. Asparagus has been duly mentioned. We demand a posting of the lab results.

Oh Brooklyn, how I miss you and your odoriferousnessessess.

I remember something a while back about how NJ was pissed (har har) that truckers were filling up soda bottles with piss and tossing them out the window...

Damn, that's from your cameraphone?

I'm with Falconfire - if your job requires you to drive for 8+ hours a day, you may have to use... unusual... ways of dealing with your need to pee. When I drove an ice-cream truck, my life would have been easier if I could have pulled off the road and peed in the bushes, but it's awfully hard for a woman to do that inconspicuously. I ended up planning my route to include 2 gas stations that would let me use their bathroom (whether or not I bought anything), and a port-a-potty in a school parking lot.

However, you should always dispose of your fluids so that other people don't have to touch them - at least throw it in a trash can, guys!

I think you needed to taste it since you are accustomed to smelling it.

@Ben - Come on, we all know the only way to really be sure is to taste it. Weak.

I'd hate to see what brown could do for you.

This story is golden!

oh wait...

Eww.

You know what they say, when you've got to go, you've got to go. I doubt the guy's boss would be amused that he spend a half an hour wading through city traffic to find a public restroom. So, if it'll hold urine...well..it's no Snapple bottle, but it'll do.

Of course, if the guy were really smart, he'd hang on to it for the next moron that cuts him off in midtown traffic.

"SPLOOOSH!"
"What da hell was dat???"
*turns on the windshield wipers*

It's the degradation of the ammonia in the urine

Actually, the degradation of the urea in the urine to ammonia.

In the olden days, well-aged ammonia-rich urine had significant value.

Same thing happens in New Orleans, only without the glove

Ewww! I hope the guy had hand wipies or something.

I will never look at my mail the same way again.

looks like urine.

smells like urine.

tastes like urine.

good thing we didn't step in it.

I live in Queens and I used to let my mail carrier (trying to be gender neutral here) use the can in my house. I think I was the midpoint in their route so it was peepee time for them.

Incidentally, he was later reprimanded by his boss because he had this bet with other mail carriers that he could wear shorts everyday to work for a full year. The local newspaper wrote a story about it and USPS didn't like that kind of publicity.

A Pee Throws in Brooklyn.