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Dumping junk a problem at St. Vincent

Courtesy photo Piles of junk were left at the donation drop off at the Escanaba St. Vincent de Paul warehouse on Halloween night. St. Vincent had to pay $146.40 to dispose of the items at the Delta County Landfill.

ESCANABA — Someone left piles of junk at the donation drop off at the St. Vincent de Paul warehouse Halloween night and St. Vincent had to foot the bill to dispose of everything at the Delta County Landfill.

Unfortunately, it’s not an isolated incident.

Cindy Wangerin, who works at the St. Vincent de Paul warehouse, said the junk was found the next morning by workers on Nov. 1.

“There were nine mattresses,” Wangerin said. “They were absolutely disgusting, you wouldn’t even want to touch them with your hands much less sleep on them.”

Wangerin said the mattresses were stained, ripped, had mouse bites and bugs all over them. She said some other items included old dressers, area rugs, blue couch cushions and speakers.

“There was just all different kinds of things besides mattresses,” Wangerin said. “Nothing could be reused for anything at all. It all had to go to the dump.”

St. VIncent de Paul had to pay $146.40 when the agency disposed of the junk at the landfill.

“That is technically taking away from people in need,” Wangerin said. “That’s quite a bit of money to be forced to pay for somebody else’s ignorance.”

St. Vincent does get junk every once in awhile brought to its donated area, but Wangerin said this was the worst. She said people leave junk at St. Vincent de Paul because they don’t want to pay the landfill fee to dispose of it.

“We had gotten some in the back occasionally, but never to that degree or that amount that it would cost St. Vincent de Paul to get rid of it,” she said.

This cost St. Vincent de Paul more than just the $146.40 bill, Wangerin said people leaving junk at St. Vincent takes away time from the volunteers there that could be doing something else.

“It’s a shame that they take from people trying to help people,” she said.

Wangerin said whenever junk is left, workers look through it to see if they can find something with a name or address on it. She said a birth certificate from OSF St. Francis Hospital was found in the junk.

“It would be really nice if we could find this person and charge them for what it cost,” Wangerin said.

Cindy Bedard, the warehouse manager, did report the situation to the Escanaba Public Safety Department.

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