Recall the horror
Late one night I was riding the 54 in downtown Saint Paul. It was the usual crowd riding the bus, workaholics & homeless people. After a few blocks I noticed a rancid smell, almost like vomit. I didn’t notice it when I got on the bus, but it was fairly strong. [warning: gross content]
As we got closer to the Dorothy Day Center I noticed a couple passengers getting uneasy (one opened a window) and another moved seats. The smell was pretty bad at this point so I did crack a window myself to calm my stomach.
Someone rang the bell, and as this person was getting off, he passed me. To my horror as he walked by I could see smears of diarrhea and clear fluid all over the seat of his pants and down his pantleg. What I had thought was vomit, was actually some homeless guy loosing his bowels after a night of binge drinking. The smell got worse as you can imagine. Apparently the guy had shit his pants while sitting on the bus - and decided to sit in it until he got to the homeless shelter. Luckily I only rode a few more blocks.
Later when retelling the story to others I heard rumors about this shits-his-pants guy and how he likes to do this especially to women by sitting in the outside seat “trapping” them. I haven’t seen that happen, or the guy since, but it makes me gag whenever I recall the horror.
Nov 30th, 2007 at 11:49 am
Surprisingly this happens quite often. I was on the 515 traveling through Richfield when a woman got on the bus at Lyndale and by the time we got to Southdale, she had had a bowel movement in her pants. She got off the bus and walked right into Southdale like she was going shopping.
The mess was left behind on the bus for the rest of us to deal with!
Feb 24th, 2008 at 12:23 am
Had a guy do this on the 18D one Saturday afternoon summer before last. Got off at Diamond Lake Rd and Nicollet. I continued to the end of the line at American Blvd. tIn this day of HIV, the bus has to be pulled from service immediately (or ASAP, anyhow) when contaminated with bodily fluids, so the garage had sent out a replacement which was waiting at the turnaround. I set out on the northbound trip, got to Diamond Lake Rd, and lo and behold…..the same…..ahm……GENTLEMAN is standing there in the shelter. Thank heavens nobody else was waiting, so I didn’t have to open the door but I still had to wait for the light. That was the longest light ever….waiting for it to turn green while this…..gentleman with the soiled trousers beat on the door screaming obscenities at me that would make a club bouncer blush. Had a couple of onboard passengers make rude comments about my failure to board him which compelled me to explain. I received their sincere apologizes as well as their grateful thanks for not opening the door. What a world…..