Two Wisconsin Walmarts Evacuated Due To Mysterious Odors, FBI Investigates
The FBI is investigating an incident in which a mysterious chemical was released in a Wisconsin Walmart sending 47 people to the hospital — and is not investigating a Walmart in the same county that had to be evacuated the next day due to an odoriferous sewer problem. What an odd coincidence.
The first evacuation, which the FBI considers a crime scene, took place in the Walmart in Germantown, WI:
Germantown Police Chief Peter Hoell told reporters, "We received a report of people inside our Walmart that were overcome by some unknown substance that was in the air. It wasn't seen but it was felt physically, internally."
Hazmat crews and ATF are on the scene trying to figure out what was released into the air. They don't want to ventilate the building, because they don't want to release the substance into the air.
Police have found a substance on the floor. Hoell says they have an idea what it is, but prefer not to release that information.
The second stinky Walmart is in nearby West Bend:
Two Walmart employees said that when they arrived at work, the store smelled like rotten eggs.
Those employees started to talk to fellow co-workers, who say they smelled it all night long.
That's when the evacuation started, with a public address announcement in the store to get out of the building,
Authorities stopped other employees from entering the store.
All employees and others inside went to their cars and were told to hang around and wait until police talked to them.
The smell was different than the bleach/ammonia-like smell from the Germantown Walmart on Thursday.
Stinky.
West Bend Walmart Reopened after Evacuation [TMJ4]
FBI Investigates Odor at Walmart [TMJ4]
Attention, Walmart shoppers! This ad is for you! Woo hoo!
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Comments:
Extreme BO?
It is Wisconsin... Maybe they were just smelling the dairy air.
(I lived there for 10 years, so I can say that.)
So, wait. One of them smells like it has a sewer problem and the other smells like it has a sewer problem that a cleaning crew tried to take care of?
But they don't think that they maybe have the same problem? Interesting.
It was probably some poisonous chemical from China degrading in the clean, fresh air of Cheese Head Land!
O&A (radio show) has been covering a stink product called "Liquid A$$" for the past week or two, tons of Youtube videos on the product, I'd bet a shiny quarter that some enterprising individual let some go there.
My money's on 245 Trioxin. BRAAAAAIIIIIINS
You'd think they would evacuate any Wal-Mart that DIDN'T have some mysterious odors. Because that would be out of the ordinary...
The Germantown store is still currently closed and they have yet to identify the substance. It sounds like ammonia and bleach mixed together.
I've seen some of the people that shop at Wal-Mart. I bet I can identify a few possible suspects.
@ophmarketing: I was in a Walmart about 2 years ago, trying on jeans. I noticed that the dressing room smelled quite strongly, and some quick detective work revealed that it was because someone had recently taken a large dump in the wastebasket. When I reported the problem, the employee said "Not again!" and told me that this happens quite often.
The secret behind the yellow smiley face revealed.
He tooted.
Bad day to evacuate, with the -12 temperature and all.
@Segador: Having to be the person that cleans out fitting rooms will truly make you want out of retail - adults and children will use the floor or trash cans as restrooms, used diapers and tampons are often left on chairs/benches ... and then you have folks that want to use the same areas for more carnal reasons as well. I wonder if Dateline has ever done one of its black light tests in a fitting room?
I would have suspected some sort of Chinese chemical weapons attack.
You think that's bad...try being the guy in charge of cleaning the restrooms, mopping the store, etc. The stories I could tell involving feces, vomit, and everything in-between. Maybe that's why I hate people.
@lannister80: Big dummy cleaning people. "Hey if this works bleach ok and that ammonia works ok then the both together will work best!!!!"
I worked at a grocery store and one night a nasty methane odor happened starting around the cash registers. As best we could determine was that a hanging pot flower sales display had not been restocked yet had water in it and it probably "burped" methane from the decaying flower stuff at the bottom of the pot. This is a pretty stinky thing in a store but can be very dangerous when you multiply the size to fill dormant volcano crater like happened in Africa 15-20 years ago and killed whole villages...
"Police have found a substance on the floor. Hoell says they have an idea what it is, but prefer not to release that information."
My money is on diarrhea.
Would it be poor taste to point the finger at the glazed-eye, locked-stepping patrons of questionable personal hygiene?
I work nearby in germantown, it was an entertaining, and loud day yesterday as we had a news helicopter hovering low in our parking lot almost all day. I drove by on the way to work this morning and the store is still blocked off. Most of the people who came in to my business after the evacuation said it had something to do with the stores automotive department.
Was Larry the Cable Guy in there trying out the toilets on display?
Yep, it certainly could be diarrhea...but another possibility: some photo developing chemical from a leaky machine or waste spill. Some of those have a pungent rotten-eggish smell.
I always find it amusing/scary that the toys are located near the hazardous substances in the wal marts-- like- hey- I know-- lets put the toxic smelly pesticides and pool supplies near where the kiddies go.. hmmm.. not that smart..
As for auto supplies-- battery acid, tires, nothing there that is rotten egg smelling that I can think of...except of course.. the feces.. ew.
@Segador: At least they used the wastebasket - a while ago, someone was taking a big crap on the sidewalk in front of the coffee shop at Powell's Books in Portland.
It seems like a really low possibility for a Walmart, but that rotten egg smell could very well be Sour Gas (H2S). It has a rotten egg smell when in lower, but still dangerous quantities.
That stuff can fuck you up really good, or cause death.
Lesson learned, STAY OUT OF WAL-MART!
@dragonprism: Or the smell of a trampled employee that everyone forgot about a few months ago decaying in the corner?
@Skylar Damiano: that was kind of my first thought... but wouldn't the FBI/ATF/etc just say "some idjit mixed bleach and ammonia" and stop the investigation at that point?
@varro: At least it was outside... someone poo'd on the floor just outside the Macy's & the Gap Kids at the mall I work at.
Walmart stores always smell like strange chemicals. So it's not far fetched to believe that a few of those odors could possibly be harmful to living creature. They should evacuate all the other stores too.
You get what you pay for.
Has anyone ever smelled a stink bomb before? Some pre-pubescent punks probably heard it on the news and cracked one open on the floor in the nearest wal*mart.
anyone fallow WHIMIS training in the states ??
if it smells like bleach+ammonia well...
BoB- hey fred toss me that bleach for this display
fred- bob you think we should make a display of glass bottle of ammonia and bleach together?
bob- heck yah saves time and they are both for cleaning the boss will be proud
*SMASH* damn the ladder fell into the display ...good thing there just cleaning chemicals ehh fred??...fred??
are you okay ...
yah thats the scene i see playing out
Maybe they were smelling the sweet smell of everyday low prices!