Harrow residents disgusted over 'collection' of urine-filled bottles outside their homes
An Essex, Ont., man has gone public with his findings of 29 urine-filled bottles on the road outside his home, leaving him and his neighbours disgusted — but according to the town's mayor, penalizing the ones behind the act won't be easy.
Harrow resident Donny Moore said he recently found an old helium balloon at the end of his driveway. In his attempt to pick it up and throw it away, a bottle caught his eye nearby.
When he walked up to it, he found it had urine in it.
Just a couple feet away, he found another one. As a professional photographer, his instinct was to take his camera out and start snapping some pictures. He photographed every single urine-filled bottle he found.
"I walked down the end of my road and back on the other side — which is about 200 metres. I came across 29 bottles that were visibly filled with pee," he said. "It was a surprise. Not a very nice one at that."
Moore posted his findings to a Facebook group exclusively for people living in Essex. The post generated more than 170 comments, with many calling the urine-filled bottles "gross" and "disgusting."
Take a look at some of the comments below:
"We live on Walker just around the corner from you and see the same thing on our property and in the ditches along the road. It's disgusting and incredibly rude." — Jenna Brush.
"That is absolutely disgusting! I sure hope they don't fill these going down the road. If they don't take the time to use the restroom, one can only guess ... blech!" — Amanda Tomkins.
"Wow, I was a driver for many years before my accident. Unfortunately, even as a woman, we were forced to do this (and yes, we actually can pee in a bottle) because there really isn't a washroom available at most places we had to pick-up at ... But never once did I ever think it was okay to just throw out those bottles that I had to use because there was no other choice for me." — Sherri-Lynne Barris.
"I'm out on the road quite a bit myself. I know what it's like to get caught short. But if I had to use a bottle, I'm not going to just use a bottle and then throw it outside. I'm going to take it home and dispose of it properly," Moore said.
For the past year, Moore said spotting urine-filled bottles outside his home has been nothing new. He's lived in Harrow for 13 years, but said he's noticed a significant uptick in the past few weeks.
"This has become a bit of a collection, I personally don't want to have the responsibility of cleaning up after somebody who's just being disgusting," he said.
Moore said he hasn't personally seen anyone throw a urine-filled bottle out on the road, but he speculates that it could be truck drivers heading toward the nearby steel mill or someone purposely doing it as a prank.
Penalizing offenders not an easy task
But according to Essex Mayor Larry Snively, preventing this type of thing from happening in the future ultimately comes down to catching offenders "in the act."
If that did happen, they would be fined for littering — "no question about it," he added.
"We can't prove that it's a truck driver. We can't prove it's someone with a car just doing it. It's a situation where you don't know who did it." - Essex Mayor Larry Snively
"As far as urine-filled bottle, I don't know to the extent of what the fine could be but, for sure, they would get a fine for littering," said Snively.
"It's very disgusting and very disturbing that someone would do this. Somebody's got to be pretty low to do something like this."
If anyone living in Essex finds urine-filled bottles outside their homes, Snively recommends they alert the town "immediately." According to the mayor, a cleanup crew would attend the area and remove the bottles.
But if anyone sees a driver throwing a urine-filled bottle out on the road, Snively suggests taking down their license plate number or any other details that would identify the driver.
"Like I say, we can't prove who's doing this. We can't prove that it's a truck driver. We can't prove it's someone with a car just doing it. It's a situation where you don't know who did it," said Snively, adding Moore's post marks the first time he's seen something like this happening in Essex.
For Moore, he'd like to see more washroom facilities, like porta-potties, set up in the area so that drivers — particularly, truck drivers heading toward the nearby steel mill — have a place to do their business without feeling the urge to have to urinate in a bottle.
In fact, he said he'd also like to see the steel mill take "proactive" measures to stop this from happening by informing truck drivers as they come and go not to throw their urine-filled bottles on the road — in the event that it's mostly truckers behind the act.
"I don't want to see the police having to go and do DNA testing," said Moore, adding the act in question isn't severe enough to require such a police resource.
"We're adults. We shouldn't have to do that. But in my opinion, something needs to be done."
