Cleaning tips for crime scenes?

[side_show]

As most of you know my neighbourhood is riddled with crime, and last night was no exception.  I'm not particularly caviler about it, but I also do my best to keep to myself and stay separate from the problem people. 

Last night, as I was getting into bed for the night, I suddenly heard men walking around on our deck and talking in an urgent tone.  I checked out the window, and saw a man who I didn't recognize, talking to someone who was on my front deck saying "You have to come back.  You have to come back" as he was walking away, leaving whoever he was talking to on our deck.  What was unusual is that the man was only wearing a T-shirt and sweats and it was only around 6 F outside.  I went down to check if whoever he was talking to was still on our deck.  It was a guy from four houses over named Mauricio who has always creeped me out and who I regularly see intoxicated around the street.  He was sitting on our front steps staring off into space.  He too was only wearing a T-shirt.  He didn't see me, and I assumed he was drunk, so I just went back up to bed.

Shortly after getting into bed, I realized there were more noises outside and checked the window.  5 police cruisers and two fire trucks had all arrived in total silence within less than 10 minutes.  They were all focused on the house where Mauricio lives.  I went to sleep.

This morning I woke up as usual to the radio and the local news.  The situation was one of three stabbings in the city overnight.  I went out to walk the dog, and to my horror the wooden front stairs of our house are covered in blood.  I had assumed that Mauricio was just drunk, but now I’m thinking he was either the victim or the person doing the stabbing due to the amount of blood.

I called the police to make a statement, but since whoever was stabbed doesn’t want to press charges, they weren’t interested in hearing from me.  They tell me I can feel free to clean the blood up right away since they don’t need to collect any evidence. 

So, I’m stuck with the disgusting task of cleaning up a bunch of blood.  Challenges related to this include the fact that it’s still below freezing here.  Resources I found on line seem to suggest using, rubber gloves, rags and a hot water and bleach solution is my best bet.  I’m pretty sure the blood has really soaked into the wood, as the stairs are way past due for staining.  I’m not even sure if it will come out of the side walk.  Any additional suggestions are welcome.

So um… yeah.  Gross.

[jay-ell]

Yikes. Definitely bleach that shit. It might not take care of the stain, but don't mess around with those bloodborne pathogens.

After that, well...the sun should bleach some of it out over time, but you might consider putting a dark stain on your deck to mask it.

I am sort of glad I don't have any advice for you on this.

[side_show]

Best suggestion from a coworker "I would move." 

We got our house as part of a special in-fill housing program, and I continue to be torn by the $45,000 we will lose if we move before our 10 years is up (in a little over four years).  We'd have to repay it to the housing program if we don't stick out the full ten years.  That I want to have a child within that time frame increases my conflicted feelings.

I was always planning on slipping out early today, but I was hoping to use the time to chill out, not clean up blood.  There's a crime scene clean up company locally, but I called him and he said it basically wasn't worth my while to have him out.  He walked me through what to do though - a solution of hot water and bleach, pour bucket over the blood, repeat.

[wombat]

That was nice of the crime scene cleanup guy.  Man, I wonder who thinks to themself "I want to clean up crime scenes when I grow up."

[side_show]

An article about the stabbing, which was the first of three last night. (deleted because I realized it basically gave directions to exactly where I live)  With the victim apparently taken to the hospital in unstable condition, I'm thinking my neighbour was the stabber, not the victim.  This makes it more disturbing on some level.  Sure glad I didn't open the door when he was sitting there dripping blood.

[side_show]

That was nice of the crime scene cleanup guy.  Man, I wonder who thinks to themself "I want to clean up crime scenes when I grow up."

This was the guy I spoke to.  With his experience as an autopsy assistant, I would imagine he saw that there was a need for clean up services.  He was very nice.  He said he would be more than willing to clean it up but honestly felt I could clean it up easily without much effort, while for him a call to the scene is an initial $250 plus additional charges related to the clean up once accessed. 

I watched a segment on a news-magazine style program about a company in California that does crime scene clean up, and it was founded by a lady who had to clean up after a close family member's suicide.  She said something along the lines that she believed that no one who had experienced such a loss should be put through the trauma of having to clean up the results.

[Nabubrush]

You've heard a variety of this from me before, but:

Jesus fuck! The worst thing I've had to put up with in my neighborhood was a Burger King bag full of used syringes.

[Asherdan]

I find this one less disturbing than the time you had a homeless-in-the-shed set of issues or the police beating on your door because, although it happened on your property, it really had nothing to do with you. It wasn't personal, just fucked up people spilling their problems around. I'd take the advice of the clean up guy and carry on.

As far as moving? I can't make that call for you. I will say that I got really tired of answering my door, or responding to something just outside it, with a pistol in my hand. The final straw for me was when I let in a girl who'd been beaten so bad her face was a swollen cabbage patch doll mass and by the time I'd handed her the phone to call it in the enraged boyfriend was beating on my door. I had to pop the door in the frame of mind necessary to either calm things the hell down or kill a man.

I've since been of a frame of mind not to put myself in the backwash of that kind of shit.

[jay-ell]

That was nice of the crime scene cleanup guy.  Man, I wonder who thinks to themself "I want to clean up crime scenes when I grow up."

This guy, for one.

If the stories of his first couple of jobs weren't so grisly, I'd link to it from my blog, but...I don't want to spring that on unsuspecting people on their lunch hour.

[side_show]

This guy, for one.

If the stories of his first couple of jobs weren't so grisly, I'd link to it from my blog, but...I don't want to spring that on unsuspecting people on their lunch hour.

That guy clearly enjoys the cool factor on some level.  Compairing himself to the Pulp Fiction character and such.

[pmcd9]

Jesus fuck! The worst thing I've had to put up with in my neighborhood was a Burger King bag full of used syringes.

Ugh, Burger King.

[side_show]

Our block is between a Burger King and a local fried Chicken chain restaurant, so you can imagine the disgusting artifacts that are emmerging from the spring melt.  Nothing is worse than the Burger King crap emerging from the snow.  My dog is all "soggy, partially thawed three month old Whopper?  Yes Please!"  Bleh.

[pmcd9]

Smells, I Googled your address from that article.  Hey, street view!  Are you telling me that idyllic tree lined street with rows of houses and manicured lawns and white picket fences (literally) is the crime ridden hell hole you've been telling us about all of these years?  From your vivid descriptions of what goes on around there I had it pictured very differently.  I was expecting to see the street strewn with empty spray paint cans and junkie squatters passed out in front of run down vacant houses.

Wow, looks can be deceiving.  

[Asherdan]

Canada's friendly exterior is a lie. It's just trying to draw you in and then the jaws clamp shut.

[side_show]

Streetview doesn't clearly show that that one empty lot is empty due to arson, or which houses are abandoned, or that most of the fences are rotten and falling over.  I'm not sure how you missed all the abandoned borded up houses though.  Streetview is blocked at my office, otherwise I'd take you on a better tour.