13 Secrets of Crime Scene Cleaners
BY Deanna Cioppa
It's a profession that few people realize exists—until tragedy strikes, and suddenly they have to deal with the unimaginable. That's when they call a select group of iron-stomached, steel-nerved workers known as trauma scene restoration specialists, biohazard remediation technicians, or simply crime scene cleaners.
Until a few decades ago, the task of cleaning up after a loved one died fell to family and friends, potentially adding trauma on top of an already terrible event. In the 1990s, a small group of companies and entrepreneurs sprang up to tackle the problem, specializing in the removal of blood, fluids, human tissue, and hazardous substances. By 2012 (the last year for which reliable data is available), crime scene cleanup was a $350-million industry in the United States, and included more than 500 companies. Here's what these hazmat-suited heroes want the world to know about their work.
1. THEY AREN'T LIMITED TO CRIME SCENES.
The phrase crime scene cleanup brings to mind police tape and furrow-browed detectives. In reality, only a fraction of the calls these companies receive—which can come from family members, property managers, hotel owners, or anyone with a dead body on their property—are the result of a major crime. Unattended natural death (i.e., a person who dies alone and isn't discovered quickly) and suicide are the most common scenarios. Glenn Cox, general manager at Southern Bio-Recovery, which has four locations in the Southeast, says that only about 30 percent of the 60 to 100 death scenes his company handles every year are homicides.
To pay the bills, it's common for companies to supplement with other kinds of biohazard removal, whether that's removing tear gas from a property after it's been used by law enforcement or getting rid of meth labs. Cox says that Southern Bio-Recovery also cleans up hoarding situations and decontaminates homes after viral or bacterial incidents—think MRSA or hepatitis outbreaks.
2. MANY OF THEM ARE EX-MILITARY OR LAW ENFORCEMENT.
Former Marine John Krusenstjerna founded Des Moines-based Iowa CTS Cleaners after serving two tours in Iraq. "Just experiencing things out there left me kind of wondering what happened in these situations back in the United States, who takes care of it," he tells Mental Floss. Peruse executive bios of many trauma restoration company websites and you'll find similar military, law enforcement, or paramedic backgrounds. Exposure to death—and the chaos it wreaks on family members—also provides valuable experience in the emotional and physical challenges inherent in cleanup. "Being able to compartmentalize in your mind, to stay focused on the task, to have integrity … all of those are attributes I believe I learned from being a soldier," Cox explains.
3. THEIR TRAINING MIGHT INVOLVE PIG BLOOD.
The certification requirements for crime scene cleaners range from nonexistent to uneven, so most training happens in-house. James Michel, CEO at Bio Recovery—which has 22 branches around the country—says all of his company's employees are taken to a special training facility at their headquarters in New York state. "We stage crime scenes there using organic and non-organic types of fake blood: stage blood, pig blood, all different types. We recreate crime scenes with sheet rock, toilets, tile, and [trainees are] able to break it down. We have decontamination stations that are permanently set up so they can walk in and out of and really grasp how to do this on a day-to-day basis." All in all, Michel says, four weeks of such training are required before their techs are even let out on a crime site.
4. THE DEATH SCENE CAN SPREAD BEYOND THE BODY.
"All of our scenes are chaotic, and there's multiple things to do," says Nate Berg, founder and president of Scene Clean, based in Osseo, Minnesota. "For example, in a decomposition [when a body has been left undiscovered for a long period], you've got strong odors and you've got all their personal property, which now have absorbed the strong odors." The work becomes a matter of peeling the layers of contamination—bedding and linens, furniture, carpeting, floorboards, subfloor or sheetrock. And what's visible to the eye (say, a small bloodstain on a carpet) may actually indicate a large pool underneath.
"A bad day is when we get called to a really bad decomposition or unattended death," Krusenstjerna says, "and find out they've not only decomposed in a kitchen or bathroom but it's dripping into the basement. We had an apartment building where it went from the third floor to the first floor."
5. THEIR CLEANING SUPPLIES ARE NEXT-LEVEL.
As you might expect, cleaning up the blood, fluids, and tissue left in the wake of a violent death or long-undiscovered decomposition takes more than bleach and elbow grease. The first step is detection of every spot, splatter, or shard. "We use an indicator similar to hydrogen peroxide, but it's a much, much stronger version," Cox says. "When it [comes into] contact with bodily fluids, it foams up and turns a very bright white color. It's also a very strong disinfectant."
When dealing with brain matter—which tends to harden to a cement-like consistency—Berg prefers to use an enzyme cleaner that, when absorbed by the tissue, softens it just enough to allow it to be removed with a scraper. For stubborn brain tissue, or fluid that's seeped into the cracks between floorboards, it might be time to break out the demolition tools: crowbars, weighted hammers, circular saws. It's also not uncommon for techs to have to dismantle furniture, remove sheetrock, or rip up flooring to get at the contaminants that have seeped in or gotten stuck.
6. THEY CAN MITIGATE THE SMELL ... SORT OF.
There's nothing like the smell of death. And while some techs get used to the odor, "when a body's been there for 60 days, in moist air, you walk in and breathe that smell, and you just go, 'This is going to be a long day,'" Michel says. Every technician wears personal protective equipment (a.k.a. PPE; think lined suits, booties, layers of gloves and respirators) to guard against blood- and air-borne pathogens, but it can be hard to avoid a quick waft now and then. "I don't care how good you are," Michel says, "when you twist your head in a certain way and break that [respirator] seal, that smell is coming in the mask." To cope, and to deodorize the home, techs employ HEPA filters, air scrubbers, ozone machines, and hydroxyl generators—which use concentrated UV light to target and destroy pollutants.
7. THEY HATE SEEING CATS ON-SITE.
That's because cats could mean cat pee. "Cat pee is my fricking nemesis," Berg says. "Most of the time we have to pull up floors or walls and make physical contact with the cat urine because it crystallizes." Michel agrees: "When you leave a dog by himself and they [defecate] or urinate, you can clean that for the most part. Cat spray is the hardest odor to remove."
8. THE TURNOVER RATE IS PRETTY HIGH.
Even the toughest clean-up doesn't compare to the emotional stress of working with grieving families or glimpsing the violence people inflict upon each other. "We only go to the worst of the worst," Michel explains. He's seen professionals in his office and around the industry turn over at a rapid rate. "We've had hundreds of employees come in and out of these doors throughout the years and the psychological toll is extremely difficult. Some of the tough cases, where there's children involved, there's a somberness in the office for days." He says that most employees, and even owners, only last about five or 10 years, max.
9. TECHS OFTEN FUNCTION AS COUNSELORS ...
Because everyone deals with grief differently, a crime scene cleanup tech has to be prepared for every kind of human interaction. Usually, it's the owner or senior tech who deals with loved ones, and that might mean listening to detailed accounts of the deceased or protecting customers from seeing the worst. "Customers tend to want to tell us the whole story, starting two months back," Cox says. "They need to vent. I have to talk with them, and sometimes I have to give them a hug and let them know that we're here to help. We understand their situation and let them know that time heals. This is part of the healing process as well."
10. ... BUT THEY SOMETIMES NEED HELP THEMSELVES.
Experienced techs and owners talk about the importance of separating their work and home lives. Still, not everyone is gifted with the ability to disengage (and even those who can may find the toll adds up over time). Several of the people we spoke to said their companies provide paid counseling for techs on a confidential, request-by-request basis. "All they have to do is submit a request. We take care of everything," Michel notes.
11. THEY MIGHT BLAST THE RADIO—OR WORK AS QUIETLY AS POSSIBLE.
Techs have to find a way to work amid all that emotion. While on site, that might mean keeping things light among themselves. "We have radios in our truck," Krusenstjerna says. "We bring the radio in the house, to help break up the time. We'll talk amongst each other, joking about what we saw on TV the night before or what's funny on Facebook. But the last thing we want, and where we draw the line, is if the family is in the house. Not to sound like we're gross or gruesome but we're not going to say, 'Grab the tooth off the window ledge,' because we don't know if they're sitting there with their ear to the bedroom door. So we'll be quiet, and use body language and signs and stuff like that."
12. A CLEAN-UP CAN COST $10,000.
Based on region, type of cleanup, and number of techs, the cost to customers varies wildly, from around $1000 to over $10,000. Generally, the more dispersed the fluids and tissue in the home, or the longer the decomp, the more manpower it will take and the longer the job will be—leading to higher costs. (While insurance and victim compensation will cover some of the cost, at least part of the bill still falls to the customers.) Depending on the number and type of jobs undertaken, owners of crime scene cleanup companies can clear hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more, in profit every year. Techs themselves can make anywhere from $25 per hour to over $100 per hour. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual compensation for a hazardous materials removal worker hovers around $41,500, but the top 10 percent earn more than $75,000.
13. THE FACT THAT THEY'RE HELPING PEOPLE MAKES IT WORTHWHILE.
If there was a common thread in all the conversations we conducted with crime scene cleaners, it was the immense satisfaction they take from their jobs. Despite the smells, the gore, and the grief, these individuals find great reward in the help they're able to provide to others in their hour of darkness. "When I have a family member who's just lost a loved one give me that hug—because they could not have done this for themselves—there is no greater satisfaction in my life," Michel says. "If I were to die tomorrow, that would be one of the greatest things I've ever been a part of. You can't describe in words. The only way I can say is, it's the beat of another human being's heart against yours, thanking you for helping them on the worst day of their lives."
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7 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets of Roadies
BY Suzanne Raga
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Although the word roadie may conjure up images of non-stop partying with rock stars, the reality is that most work unglamorous, physically and emotionally demanding jobs. They lug the gear, set up the instruments, manage the stage, run the sound, sell the merch, drive the bus, and generally do whatever it takes to make concerts possible. Mental Floss talked to a few roadies (who probably wish we'd stop calling them that—see below) to get the inside scoop.
1. Roadie is an outdated term.
Some roadies who worked in the 1960s through the 1980s later wrote books bragging about their sexual conquests, wild partying, and drug use while on the road. Although that lifestyle is not completely obsolete—genres such as metal, rap, and hip hop supposedly see more illegal activity than indie, pop, folk, and alternative—most roadies don't refer to themselves as such.
Morgan Paros, a violinist and singer based in Los Angeles, says that the generic term roadie seems slightly derogatory now. Instead, it's better to use terms that more specifically describe individual duties. "Anyone on a tour is generally working very hard to fulfill their role of tour manager, front of house (sound engineer), light tech, stage manager, instrument tech, or merchandise manager," Paros says. "These individuals make everything possible for the performers every night."
2. Roadies work insanely long hours.
Most roadies work 16- to 20-hour days. Waking up early and going to sleep late is part of the job description, as Meg MacRae, a production coordinator who's been on the road with Bon Jovi and the Eagles, attests. A typical day for her starts with a 6 a.m. bus pickup, after which she sets up a temporary production office at the venue. After a long day of problem-solving, booking flights and hotels, and making sure the crew is taken care of, she ends her day at 1:30 or 2 a.m.
3. Roadies get used to roughing it.
Unless they're working for an A+ list performer, most roadies are not living the high life, sleeping in luxury hotel suites and flying on private jets. Being on the road can be hard work. Depending on the band's budget level, the road crew may sleep on the floor of a shared hotel room, or sit in a crowded Ford Econoline or Chevrolet Express van for hours.
Tour conditions offer minimal privacy and maximum mess. "You wouldn't believe how insanely messy a van can get after a 6-week tour of the country," says Michael Lerner of Telekinesis.
David, a front-of-house sound engineer based in New York, also describes the dirty working conditions in many venues. "Consider how grimy some music venues look. The dusty mixing board in the back coated in spilled beer, the germs of hundreds of singers talking/spitting/shouting into the same microphones night after night, and the questionable odors of green rooms inhabited by people who spend a solid portion of their days packed into a van … this is your office. Good luck not getting sick."
4. Roadies usually have good reasons for putting up with it all.
So why do roadies subject themselves to the long hours and less-than-glamorous conditions? Many say they love music so much that they can't imagine working in any other field. "For as long as I can remember, I have always wanted to have a job in music," tour manager and sound engineer William Pepple writes. Some roadies also get into it because they love traveling all over the world, seeing new cities, and meeting new people.
5. Maintaining relationships at home is a big challenge for roadies.
Being a roadie is a lifestyle rather than just a job. Because they travel so frequently for work, roadies often struggle to maintain relationships with loved ones. Technology such as FaceTime and Skype has made keeping up with family, friends, and significant others easier, but it can still be a challenge to find privacy to make phone calls. Roadies who travel on buses have a little more privacy and time to connect with loved ones back home, since bus tours often give them the freedom of waking up in the city where the band's next show is, while road crew on van tours spend the majority of the daytime driving to the next show.
6. They probably have at least one horror story from the road.
Whether it's an unscrupulous promoter cheating the band out of their earnings, a bus overheating, a van breaking down, or driving through dangerous winter storms, roadies probably have at least one horror story. Most awful promoters or venues, though, are usually due to simple misunderstandings. "Most bad days are due to either bad communication or a lack of understanding that most touring people just want simple comforts: a clean shower, clean towels, a safe place to put their stuff, laundry machines, and good food," says Mahina Gannet, who's worked as a tour manager and production coordinator for bands such as The Postal Service, Death Cab For Cutie, and Neko Case.
7. Good roadies are there to work, not just hang out with the band.
Achieving a balance between being professional and having fun is harder on tours because "you are working, living and traveling with your co-workers," Gannet adds. "I'm there to get a job done, and when it's done, I love to hang out. A lot of tour managers I've seen definitely can go to either extreme (some actually thinking they are a member of the band, some so distant the band can't talk to them), but it's like everything else in life. It's about finding your own personal balance."
This piece first ran in 2016 and was republished in 2019.
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14 Secrets of McDonald's Employees
While there's virtually no end to the number of fast food options for people seeking a quick meal, none have entered the public consciousness quite like McDonald's. Originally a barbecue shop with a limited menu when it was founded by brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald in the 1940s, the Golden Arches have grown into a franchised behemoth with more than 36,000 locations worldwide.
Staffing those busy kitchens and registers are nearly 2 million McDonald's employees. To get a better idea of what many consider to be the most popular entry-level job in the nation—staff members on the floor make an average of $9 an hour—we asked several workers to share details of their experiences with errant ice cream machines, drive-through protocols, and special requests. Here's what they had to say about life behind the counter.
1. McDonald's employees can't always deliver fast food all that fast.
While McDonald's and other fast-service restaurants pride themselves on getting customers on their way, some menu items just don't lend themselves to record service times. According to Bob, an assistant store manager at a McDonald's in the Midwest, pies take an average of 10 to 12 minutes to prepare; grilled chicken, 10 minutes; and biscuits for Egg McMuffins, eight to 10 minutes. In the mood for something light, like a grilled chicken and salad? That will take a few minutes, too. Bob says salads are pre-made with lettuce but still need to have chicken and other ingredients added.
The labor-intensive nature of assembling ingredients is part of why the chain has more recently shied away from menu items with too many ingredients. "We are trained to go as fast down the line as we can, and if we have to stop to make something that has 10 ingredients, it tends to slow things down," Bob tells Mental Floss. "Corporate has realized this and has taken many of these items off in recent years, [like] McWraps, Clubhouse, more recently the Smokehouse and mushroom and Swiss and moved to items that can go a lot quicker."
2. McDonald's workers wish you'd stop asking for fries without salt.
Joerg Koch, AFP/Getty Images
A common "trick" for customers seeking fresh fries is to ask for them without salt. The idea is that fries that have been under a heating lamp will already be salted and that the employee in the kitchen will need to put down a new batch in the fryer. This does work, but customers can also just ask for fresh fries. It's less of a hassle and may even save employees some discomfort.
"People can ask for fresh fries and it's actually way easier to do fresh fries rather than no-salt fries," Andy, an employee who's worked at three different McDonald's locations in the Midwest, tells Mental Floss. "For those, we have to pour the fries onto a tray from the fryer so they don't come in contact with salt. It can get awkward sometimes getting everything into position, especially if you have a lot of people working in close proximity and it's busy, so I've had some scalded hands a couple of times trying to get fries out in a timely way."
3. McDonald's workers have to pay careful attention to the order of ingredients.
McDonald's is pretty specific about how their burgers and other items are supposed to be assembled, with layers—meat, cheese, sauce—arranged in a specific order. If they mess it up, customers can notice. "In some cases it has a big impact," Sam, a department manager and nine-year veteran of the restaurant in Canada, tells Mental Floss. "Like placing the cheese between the patties with a McDouble. If they don't put the cheese between the patties, the cheese won't melt."
4. There's a reason McDonald's employees ask you to park at the drive-through.
Tim Boyle, Getty Images
After ordering at the drive-through window, you may be slightly puzzled when a cashier asks you to pull into one of the designated parking spots. That's because employees are measured on how quickly they process cars at the drive-through. If your order is taking a long time to prepare, they'll take you out of the queue to keep the line moving. "My store has sensors in the drive-through that actually tell us exactly how long you are at each spot in the drive-through," Bob says. "We get measured based on something we call OEPE. Order end, present end. [That measures] from the second that your tires move from the speaker until your back tires pass over the sensor on the present window. My store is expected to be under two minutes." If an order will take longer than that, you'll be asked to park.
5. The McDonald's drive-through employees can hear everything going on in your car.
While the quality of the speakers at a drive-through window can vary, it's best to assume employees inside the restaurant can hear everything happening in your car even before you place an order. "The speaker is activated by the metal in the car, so as soon as you drive up, the speaker turns on in our headset," Andy says. "We can hear everything, and I do mean everything. Loud music, yelling at your kids to shut up, etc."
6. The employees at McDonald's like their regulars.
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With hot coffee, plenty of tables, Wi-Fi, and newspapers, McDonald's can wind up being a popular hang-out for repeat customers. "[We have] a ton of regulars who come into my store," Bob says. "I'd say at least 75 percent of my daily customers know us all by name and we know them all, too. It makes it nice and makes the service feel a lot more personal when a customer can walk into my location, and we can look them in the eye and say, 'Hey Mark! Getting the usual today?' and we've already started making his coffee exactly how he takes it."
7. McDonald's staff get prank calls.
Unless they're trying to cater an event, customers usually don't have any reason to phone a McDonald's. When the phone rings, employees brace themselves. In addition to sometimes being asked a legitimate question like when the store closes, Sam says his store gets a lot of prank calls. "Sometimes it's people asking about directions to Wendy's," he says. "A lot of inappropriate ones. Most are pretty lame."
8. For a McDonald's worker, the ice cream machine is like automated stress.
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The internet is full of stories of frustrated McDonald's customers who believe the chain's ice cream machines are always inoperable. That's not entirely true, but the machine does experience a lot of downtime. According to Bob, that's because it's always in need of maintenance. "The thing is, it is a very sensitive machine," he says. "It's not made to be making 50 cones in a row, or 10 shakes at a time. It takes time for the mix to freeze to a proper consistency. It also requires a daily heat mode, [where] the whole machine heats up to about 130 degrees or so. The heat mode typically takes about four hours to complete, so you try to schedule it during the slowest time." Stores also need to take the machine entirely apart every one to two weeks to clean it thoroughly.
Bob adds that the machine's O-rings can crack or tear, rendering the unit inoperable. Seasoned workers can tell if a unit is faulty by the consistency of the shakes or ice cream coming out, and sometimes by the noises it makes.
9. McDonald's employees don't mind if you order a grilled cheese.
Contrary to rumor, there's no "secret menu" at McDonald's. But that doesn't mean you can't sometimes snag something not listed on the board. Andy says a lot of people order a grilled cheese sandwich. "I've made many a grilled cheese before," he says. But it's not without consequences. "Sometimes it can get a bit risky doing it because the bun toaster wasn't designed to make grilled cheeses so sometimes you get some burnt buns or cheese or the cheese sticks inside and it slows down the other buns from getting out on time so that causes more burnt buns."
Another common request is for customers to ask for a McDouble dressed as a Big Mac, with added Big Mac sauce and shredded lettuce. "I think [it's] a way more practical way to eat a Big Mac since there's less bun in the way, and it's also way cheaper even if you do get charged for Mac sauce."
10. McDonald's workers recommend always checking your order.
Nothing stings worse than the revelation that an employee has forgotten part of your food order. Contrary to popular belief, it's not because the employees are being lazy or inattentive. According to Bob, it's simply due to the volume of customers a typical location has to process in a given day. "We are human," he says. "Mistakes do happen. We always feel terrible when they do but when we serve 1000-plus people a day, it's bound to happen."
Bob recommends checking your bag before leaving the restaurant and not taking it personally if there's an issue. "Be nice to us if you have a problem," he says. "It's a huge difference between coming to us and saying, 'Hey, I seem to be missing a fry from my bag,' and 'You bastards didn't give me my fries!'" If you want to check your bag at the drive-through, though, he recommends trying to pull ahead so cars behind you can move forward.
11. McDonald's employees don't recommend the grilled chicken.
If a menu item isn't all that popular, it can wind up experiencing a low rate of turnover. Of all the food at McDonald's, the most neglected might be the grilled chicken. Because it doesn't move quickly, workers find that it can turn unappetizing in a hurry. "That stuff has a supposed shelf life of 60 minutes in the heated cabinet, but it dries out so quickly that even if it's within an acceptable time frame, it looks like burnt rubber, and probably tastes like it, too," Andy says.
12. Golden Arches employees aren't crazy about Happy Meal collectors.
David Morris, Getty Images
Happy Meals are boxed combos that come with a toy inside. Usually, it's tied into some kind of movie promotion. That means both Happy Meal collectors and fans of a given entertainment property can swarm stores looking for the product. "The biggest pain involving the Happy Meals is the people who collect them," Bob says. "I personally hate trying to dig through the toys looking for one specific one. We usually only have one to three toys on hand. It's especially a pain in the butt during big toys events such as the Avengers one we just had. There was like 26 different toys, and some customers get really mad when you don't have the one that they want."
And no, employees don't usually take home leftover toys. They've saved for future use as a substitute in case a location runs out of toys for their current promotion.
13. McDonald's employees can't mess with Monopoly.
The McDonald's Monopoly promotion has been a perennial success for the chain, with game pieces affixed to drink cups and fry containers. But if you think employees spend their spare time peeling the pieces off cups looking for prizes, think again. Following a widely-publicized scandal in 2000 that saw an employee of the company that printed the pieces intercepting them for his own gain, the chain has pretty strict rules about the promotion. "Monopoly pieces and things like them get sent back to corporate," Bob says. "We aren't allowed to touch them, open them, or redeem them as employees."
14. One McDonald's worker admits there have been sign mishaps.
Many McDonald's locations sport signs under the arches advertising specials or promotions. Some are analog, with letters that need to be mounted and replaced. Others have LED screens. Either way, there can be mistakes. "I've never seen anyone mess around with the letters," Andy says. "But I do remember one time we were serving the Angus Burgers and the 'G' fell off of the word 'Angus.' Good times."
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