The person telling this story is relating real events. That's all I can say.
Speculations why a canister like this would exist and be hidden away in a vent? I have my suspicions...
Sometime during the 1970s, I was in my family's basement trying to catch one of our cats. The cat scurried up some items we had stored in the basement, and it went into a vent of sorts. I was about 10 years old.
Reaching into the hole where the cat went, I did not find the cat -- but I did find a very old looking metal canister. It was very corroded, and looked at least 30 years or older. And even at 10 years old, I recognized the big red skull and crossbones on the side of it. It was tuberculosis, or so it said on the canister.
I immediately took it to my mother, and she called the police. They questioned me every which way trying to determine whether I had opened it, and then they had my mother do the same while they left the room.
Nothing went into the newspapers about it so far as I know, but my mother still remembers the event quite well. The memory haunts me to this day. What in the he11 was a 30+ year old biological sample of TB doing hidden inside the vents of a residential home?
It was heavy, and was as big around as a coffee mug, and almost as tall. As far as I am concerned, it is nearly as disturbing empty as if it had TB in it. Someone hid it up in the vents -- that much is obvious. Why hide it if it was empty?
The police never returned. And we never contacted the media. I certainly wasn't going to take that upon myself at that age, and my mother figured she had already done the right thing by calling the police. A friend of mine is an attorney, and he said that the records of it happening have probably long-since been destroyed.
Location: 4025 Oliver Street in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
It was labled, however. Machine-printed. It was not hand-written. And it most definitely said tuberculosis on it.
Fort Wayne had a Tuberculosis Sanatorium
"In Allen County, Indiana, which includes Fort Wayne, there were 16 recorded cases of TB in 2003 and eight so far this year. Officials there believe immigrants who come from countries where TB is a major health threat are the main cause for the recent surge."--
http://soundmedicine.iu.edu/segment.php4?seg=5Are there other cansisters out there hiding in homes and buildings? hmmm....
