Depending on the age of any given house, the basement beneath it can range from comfortable and cozy to dungeon-like. Still, even the most ancient unfinished basements would be a big step up from what one Iowa family discovered when they ventured to the bottom floor of their home this week.
The Lestina family found a true horror show resting beneath their feet as animal blood, bones, and blobs of fat covered the floor of their basement to a depth of nearly five inches. In searching for the source of the gore officials didn’t have to look far, as the home sits right next to a meat locker where animals are routinely slaughtered.
Dahl’s Custom Meat Locker told authorities that they had butchered a number of animals earlier this month and flushed blood and animal debris down a floor drain. That drain, it seems, is closely attached to a floor drain in the basement of the Lestina home.
The house has since been deemed unlivable, and the family of seven has been forced to take up temporary residence elsewhere. Unfortunately, the meat locker is apparently unwilling to aid in the basement cleanup efforts.
“They haven’t reached out at all. In fact, they haven’t taken any accountability for it,” Nick Lestina told WHOTV. “They say it’s not their fault and told me ‘good luck.’ If I want to do anything about it, it’s on my dime and my schedule.”
The company has been cooperating with state officials to ensure this kind of thing doesn’t happen again. The Lestina family claims that the meat locker has been under new management for the past year, and that there have never been any issues like this in the past, suggesting that whatever the current owners are doing to dispose of the animal waste is new.
It’s unclear how long it will take for the mess to be cleaned up, but Halloween is just around the corner and this sounds like the perfect location for a haunted house.
