What the hell is wrong with some people??

I work in a manufacturing facility. A very large manufacturing facility. It's about 1.8 million square feet, and when I started over fifteen years ago there were 4,000 employees. With our reduced volume and products, we are now down to around 800 employees, which is still a decent sample size for the general population.

I must preface this by saying most of the people are hard-working and dedicated, and want to simply do their jobs and go home. That said, I think the statistics for strangeness at my place is a bit skewed, as there have been an inordinate number of folks (I have seen and heard about) who have done things or been part of activities that I just don't see anywhere else. I mean nowhere. Yes, there have been the people with alcohol or substance abuse problems. There have been the relationship problems. I have known some really strange people. I have seen and heard things that I cannot share with just anyone, because repeating these stories and forbid it, laughing about some of them, reflects on me.

Those of you who have heard the tales know of what I speak. How many of you know men who have had their [ex] wives throw all of their clothing on the front lawn? Check. Or brought it to work to throw out in front of the guard shack? Check. Or have been shot at by them? Check. Convicted arsonists? Check. Felons convicted of attempted murder? Check. Church "preachers" who steal from the company? Clans of brothers working together who I cannot begin to describe in a way that would do justice, but suffice it to say in one case brothers 2&3 refuse to speak with brother 1 because he had killed brother 4 with a 2x4 (no murder conviction (aggravated assault), because it took over a year for him to die). I had to call the police when he showed up at work one morning. People who live at work, because at 60+ years of age they thought they had scored big by getting a woman half their age to move in, only to have her then move her biker buddies in and shove him out. I didn't even blink. Lunatic hotheads who everyone is sure will someday kill someone? Check, check, check, and check. In fact, he did eventually kill someone, and though he shot a sheriff while en route to kill his ex-wife and mother-in-law, he was finally apprehended less than a mile from their location. There are so many things I could share. Many of us talked about compiling the stuff for a book, though nobody would believe it.

What is my point? Strange things don't surprise or shock me. Something happened today that changed this. In one of the men's restrooms in my area, we had a "poop bandit." I don't mean a thief, but someone who pooped on the floor, walked through it, leaving poopie footprint tracks everywhere, then smeared it on the wall as some sort of poopgraffiti or "poopart" (does this make him "Poocasso?"). Now, as a self-described poopaphobe, I am especially horrified. Who does this kind of thing? Is this an angry person, quietly plotting away day after day ("They'll all pay! Hmm hmm hmmmm")? Or did he just have to go, and think, "This seems like a good idea!" Unbelievable. I used to use this bathroom to wash my hands (as a germophobe, I rarely use toilets away from home). Now I can no longer use it, as there is no amount of cleaning, short of acid and steam, that will make it remotely usable for me. Thank goodness I wasn't the person who found it! I would probably be in a corner somewhere, catatonic and drooling or sucking my thumb.

I guess I'm just venting. I just had to get it out, lest I go find a bathroom somewhere...