Litter Tray Littering

I work at a thrift store, and I am at the donation door. [Coworker] comes down at five minutes to the end of the hour when we have a moment of quiet. He is the next hour’s door shift.

A car pulls in, and an old lady hops out of the car really quickly. She sprints to the back of her car, grabs something, and puts it by our door. We open the door and find one of those covered cat litter boxes.

Coworker: “Hey, ma’am, I’m sorry, but we can’t take litter boxes.”

He bends down to pick it up and the top comes RIGHT OFF. There are three inches of used cat sand in the bottom. Holy moly, I can SMELL the cat pee.

Old Woman: “Well, I can’t take it with me.”

Me: “You’re going to have to, because we cannot accept this. We don’t take in anything that has been exposed to feces or urine.”

Old Woman: “I CAN’T TAKE IT WITH ME, SO YOU’RE JUST GOING TO HAVE TO ACCEPT IT!”

Me: “No. No, we’re not.”

I pick up the cat litter box and put it right back into the back of her car.

Me: “You brought it here, so you are going to find another place for it. We will not accept this.”

Old Woman: “Well, you’re just going to have to hold onto it, and I’ll come back for it later then!”

Me: “No, ma’am. That’s not happening.”

As if I would trust her to “come back” for it!

Old Woman: “What if I dumped the cat sand out of it first?! Will you take it then?”

Me: “No, ma’am, it will have still been exposed to cat feces.”

She looked like the kind of person who would just walk to the edge of our parking lot and just upend it there; I could see it in her eyes. Nope. Nope. Nope. Just… Nope.

She looked furious, but both [Coworker] and I were standing in the doorway watching her. There was no way for her to just dump it and run without us interfering. Finally, she drove off with it.

What’s that, you ask? Did I wash my hands a thousand times after picking that thing up?

Why, yes! Yes, I did!