Suspicious Stain Removal Advice Sought From Home Depot
Sure, there's probably a perfectly innocuous explanation why a woman called the Home Depot in Jacksonville, Illinois and asked how to remove a large quantity of blood from her carpets. But that doesn't stop people's imaginations from running wild, and didn't stop the employee who took the call from alerting the police.
Perhaps the question sounds a little more nefarious than it was, but the caller's demands to know how to solve the problem were enough to raise the attention of the Home Depot employee who answered the phone.
After that inquiry, the woman asked if the Morton Avenue business rented steam cleaners.
It does, by the way, but because it was going on 11 p.m. Monday and the store was closed, the woman was told she would have to wait until at least 6 a.m.
The woman was skittish about identifying herself, so the employee thought it would be a good idea to let police know about the cryptic conversation.
I guess Hints from Heloise just wouldn't write back quickly enough. If you encounter this problem, try hydrogen peroxide.
Curious call about removing blood from carpet draws attention [Journal Courier]
How to Clean Blood From Carpet Using Hydrogen Peroxide [eHow.com]
(Photo: Abhishek Jacob)
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Comments:
Wow. Just....Wow.
Am I the only one who wouldn't have asked more questions? I.E. How much blood? More than 7 pints? Is the blood warm? What kind of carpet is it? Throw rug? Do you need the DNA destroyed as well? Do you know what Luminol and *69 is? Have you ever watched an episode of CSI?
(And to myself):PLEASE let this be a call they are recording for quality assurance!!
True Story: A Home Depot outed Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton after Monica called in for advice on how to remove a sticky stain out of the carpet in the Ora...Oval Office.
I used to work at a hazardous waste (industrial) disposal company, and we had a sister company, with a similar name, which dealt with medical waste, including amputated body parts from hospitals. One summer, a college student filling in for the receptionist received a call asking if we (our site) disposed of body parts. She was pretty rattled for the rest of the day.
@JollyJumjuck: So if they tagged them, you bagged them, but the other company would slab them if someone stabbed them?
Seems to me that Google is the place to go for these types of questions.
Not, er, that I would know.
First thing I thought of was American Psycho and the scene where he's yelling at the Asian woman about his stained sheets.
Considering how large the internet is, I never expect to see news about places to which I've been closely connected. (I used to work in Jacksonville.)
It's too bad this will probably remain a mystery.
I used to work for a furniture warranty company (don't ask, it was ridiculous). Anyways, we had a mattress protection plan and we got a picture from a tech we had dispatched to clean up a blood stain.
From the description on the original call, it was a sizeable amount, but it wasn't anything too bad, it was in one area.
The picture the tech sent us (and he refused to clean the mattress, for obvious reasons) the mattress was SOAKED in blood. This wasn't a heavy flow evening for the Mrs. This was like a double homicide. We all passed that picture around for quite a while. I don't know if anyone ever called the police, though. Hmmm...
He missed an opportunity to sell her some laminate flooring.
Pshaw. I make my own blood removal agent at home.
Actually things like nosebleeds can generate a lot of blood.
I once had to clean about 2 pints of blood from my sister's carpet after she got a leg wound in her home; when I asked the shampooer rental guy if the machine would get blood out of carpet, he didn't bat an eye, just told me to use peroxide and keep the tank heater off.
With most accidents occurring in the home, I don't suppose it's such a rare situation.
Looks like it's time for Home Depot to invest in some garlic wreaths around each of their doors.
You invite just one lousy, stinkin' fang-banger and BAM pretty soon you're beating them off with a stake.
*sob* Where's Lou Dobbs when he can actually do some good?
Call me strange, but I like it when my stuff is stained with my own blood. It's like writing my name on it, but better. My girlfriend made me replace my bedsheets because they were covered in smears of blood resulting from my particularly severe nail-biting habit. An entirely reasonable request, certainly, but I'll admit that I miss those stains.
Of course, I make sure never to get my blood on anyone else's things, as a matter of decency.
I'm Winston Wolf. I solve problems. If I'm curt with you, it's because time is a factor. I think fast, I talk fast and I need you guys to act fast if you wanna get out of this. So, pretty please...with sugar on top. Get to Home Depot and rent me a frigin' steam cleaner.
The woman probably should have just rolled the body into the carpet and taken it to the dump. "Unfaithful?" Either that or tried Lowes.
Did she ask for a wood chipper before asking how to get blood out?
Just blood, who cares. Now also asking whats the strongest acid they carry as well.
Or did she ask for an air compressor and one of those bolt things? Did she use the term Friend-o?
@Vandelay Import Export: Yup.
A major cut will, too. If someone managed to cut up their arm (like, oh, shattering glass), that'd do it, too...
@Matt Redacted: Jacksonville isn't exactly BFI, Iowa though.
Fun fact: I took a flight into JAX 3 days ago - small world.
Oh Shamwow Vince, you'll never learn.
@layton59: her "female" friend. come on now.. you want us to believe YOU over the Home Depot outing them? please.
I'm calling phone prank until some evidence surfaces to prove otherwise.
Here is some good information on Professional biohazard cleanup -- company is run by a friend of mine:
@burnedout: And Jacksonville IL really is BFI...maybe that makes the story less strange...small towns are weird.
@locakitty: It could've been from something like a miscarriage. My good friend has a blood clotting disorder and is on blood thinners. When she was pregnant, they had to re-regulate everything with a different drug, and got it wrong, and she bled so much she said her bedroom looked like a crime scene. She was certain she'd miscarried, but nope ... baby was (and is) healthy. 3 years later, and she says there are still some stains left.
There are other reasons for a lot of blood that don't involve crime. Just what me and my non-medical background are familiar with: miscarriage, accidental bodily injury, REALLY bad vericose veins involving a major vein that, when scratched, doesn't stop bleeding.
I'm fairly certain the police know that there are many non-criminal ways a lot of blood ends up on the carpet. If not, they should have a chat with some EMT's.
Maybe she just finished butchering a Brett-Favre-themed goat in her living room.