Recently I was on a solo night-op to an abandoned church in an urban residential area. Entering was no small feat, but once inside, the first room I entered was rather curious to say the least. One wall was covered with floor-to-ceiling shelves, upon which sat an assortment of very random foods (like squeeze mayonnaise and olives). In the middle of the room was a bucket, along side a crumpled shirt. The smell that hit me was... not good. Somewhere between week old piss and organic rot. Inside the bucket were several rags (maybe a bandage) soaked completely in about an inch of dark red liquid. I'm not positive it was blood, but it damn well could have been.
Senses heightened, I paused and listened for about five minutes before deciding to peek into the next, much larger room. The floor was covered with all sorts of stuff, bikes, bags, trash... In the center, a large poster was laid out and covered with some sort of strange paint, along with rows and rows of stickers. I didn't get a good look though, as I then noticed a bumpy, potentially occupied sleeping bag along the far wall. I bailed silently and quickly, with no evidence that my presence was known.
I've run into homeless before, but nothing quite like this. To my knowledge there's no easy access into this building, and the church sits right on a busy four lane road. And the bucket of maybe blood? It was still wet, so I'm pretty confident it was recent. I'm not really sure what I should do, if anything. I'm no fan of LEOs, but this seems like something that might be worth anonymously reporting (using TOR tunneled through a public network). At the same time, I've been homeless myself and don't want to rain on someone's gig, especially since they found a roof that no one seems to care about... I'm kinda stuck.
To ghost - I would go with your gut. If you're really concerned I would make a report. The blood bucket could be a lot of things. Sometimes junkies get these horrible abscesses that bleed and pus all over the place.
Yeah I dont know. I understand the concern for sure, but right now are the cops gonna really help this person? If anything they'd probably just kick them out of their spot or cite em for trespassing. If I were you I'd just leave 10-20 bucks and move on.
Posted by taragon Yeah I dont know. I understand the concern for sure, but right now are the cops gonna really help this person?
Yeah I think I'm leaning towards your point of view; I think they'd probably do more harm than good. I didn't see any dead bodies or knives or anything, so I really don't have much to go on other than a creepy bucket.
I'm still a bit torn up about this one, but in lieu of any strong arguments for either side I have opted not to do anything. Bystander effect? Perhaps. But, here's my (loose) reasoning: - I'm not 100% sure it was actually blood in the bucket. Even if it was, it was most likely someone dressing wounds. At that location, several medical clinics and facilities are less than a 30min walk away, so they must have had a good reason for handling things themselves. - Despite the heavy aroma, I didn't smell any corpses, so I have no reason to suspect anyone died, at least in the rooms I saw. - I still have no idea how the person(s) entered. If they're willing to take that much effort not to be seen, then who am I to barge in?
I dunno, I mostly just feel no moral obligation to fuck up this guy's gig. At the end of the day, although it was fucking creepy as hell, I don't think I saw anything that decisively justifies taking action, so I've kept quiet.
Posted by "ghost" I'm still a bit torn up about this one, but in lieu of any strong arguments for either side I have opted not to do anything. Bystander effect? Perhaps. But, here's my (loose) reasoning: - I'm not 100% sure it was actually blood in the bucket. Even if it was, it was most likely someone dressing wounds. At that location, several medical clinics and facilities are less than a 30min walk away, so they must have had a good reason for handling things themselves. - Despite the heavy aroma, I didn't smell any corpses, so I have no reason to suspect anyone died, at least in the rooms I saw. - I still have no idea how the person(s) entered. If they're willing to take that much effort not to be seen, then who am I to barge in?
I dunno, I mostly just feel no moral obligation to fuck up this guy's gig. At the end of the day, although it was fucking creepy as hell, I don't think I saw anything that decisively justifies taking action, so I've kept quiet.
Hope they're doin alright ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I probably would have left him alone as well. If someone obviously was needing aid, I would certainly do my best to help, but I’m much more cautious about providing unsolicited aid to someone that may not need or want it.
Perhaps the Star Trek producers got it right after all.
A lot of yall immediately turn to murder tv shows and the worst case scenarios that could ever be thought of.
The sad reality is the person is probably terminal and vomiting or shitting blood which isn't a sight I haven't seen during my adventures. They're homeless. They're also dying. They're alone. Don't make things worse for them because you weren't suppose to be there to begin with.
This is a late response, however I think it could be that the person living there was on their period. It would explain the rags soaked in blood, the water (which could've been used to rinse/wash the rags and their body), and the organic rot smell.
Ethics
