This Week in the Mercury
Monday, July 13, 2009
News Thriftlodge Guest Finds Three Needles Under Bed
Posted by Sarah Mirk on Mon, Jul 13, 2009 at 12:36 PM
Welcome to Portland, check under your bed! Friday night Michigan resident Frank Escamilla rolled in to town to look into buying a house in cheerful Stumptown. He stayed at the most budget-conscious place he could find: the Thriftlodge on East Burnside and SE 9th.
"The whole building smelled like urine, especially in the rooms. It was pretty gross," says Escamilla. Things quickly got worse. Just to play it safe, Escamilla decided to check under his mattress for signs of bedbugs. No bugs droppings in sight, but wedged between the two boxsprings supporting the mattresses he spotted a black plastic bag. Gingerly, Escamilla picked up the bag and dumped it out on the bedside table—out rolled a cotton swab and three hypodermic needles.
"I was shocked, I couldn’t believe it. I flipped out a little," says Escamilla, who walked down the block to Green Dragon and tried to chill out over a drink. Getting pricked by those needles would have put Escamilla at risk for contracting serious diseases, like HIV/AIDS.
In the end Escamilla decided to what any respectable Portlander would do: he blogged about it. And then checked out of the Thriftlodge and checked into a much more expensive hotel out in safe, safe Beaverton. After some tense negotiations, Escamilla got his money back for the room.
Thriftlodge manager Shan Karia says he was surprised to see needles, but his staff has found them before in rooms. "We've found them in the dressers, it happens in the industry," Karia says, apologizing for the incident. The Burnside Thriftlodge's cleaning policy is to only check under mattresses once every three months.
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Wait, I thought Portland was all bikes and food carts and ironic donuts?
but at least the city will provide him clean needles courtesy of the non-junkie taxpayer
What happened to keeping Portland quirky? What the incessant pointing-strange-things-out causes is a flattening of the peculiar. How bland can you become?
As a kid, I used to help my grandfather during the summers when he remodeled motels in LA. One of my jobs was removing the old mattresses and box springs from the rooms. Believe me, it was the exception to not find kits like this under the bed. Granted, it was LA, not Portland, but you can pretty much be assured this will be the norm at cheap motels here, too.
My uncle once got pricked on the fingertip by a needle that was tucked under the edge of the carpet in a room when he was ripping it out to replace it. We had to take him immediately to get tested and were all relieved when the tests came back negative. What a horrible week at work that was for him, though.
I learned about sex from the porn mags and shit-covered toilet paper holders I would have to remove from under those beds when I was 8 years old. Hmm, maybe that's why I'm still single.
Turns out "the most budget-conscious place" one can find - called the ThriftLodge no less - isn't that nice of a place.
This is news because...?
I've found needles in a few public places in Portland-- bus stops along Burnside and MLK / Grand, for instance.
But do I go looking for them? No. And for this same reason, I don't go flipping over motel mattresses. Especially if they're run-down horror show Econolodges!
Poke around most any hotel room and you'll find a roach trap, a blood stain or a condom wrapper. I'll remain willfully ignorant, mmmkay?
It's a cheap motel in a large city. WTF did he expect? If that's so shocking, I suggest he hide in the suburbs indefinitely.
If I were going to visit, say, Detroit for the first time, I'd probably use teh google before I left to find a nice place to stay during my visit.
How about a story on yet another uptight pussy moving to Portland and expressing shock that not everything here has been sterilized for the consumption of the trendy and beautiful. Er...
""I was shocked, I couldn’t believe it. I flipped out a little," says Escamilla, who walked down the block to Green Dragon and tried to chill out over a drink."
Says it all, really. Bunch of bars near there--puss could've gone to Union Jack's or the B-Side, but nooooooo. Goes to the Green Dragon.
It's hard to prick yourself with a capped needle.
Rest assured - it's quirky local, sustainable, vegan heroin that's being shot down there in LoBu...
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