Go Do It On The Floor
Thursday, June 9, 2005:
Woman denied use of public restroom at Rochester thrift store
By ADAM D. KRAUSS
Democrat Staff Writer
akrauss@fosters.com
"ROCHESTER — The local Salvation Army thrift store is planning on allowing shoppers to use the restroom from now on after a Somersworth woman urinated herself Wednesday when employees would not allow her to use the bathroom.
Police were called to the scene by a store employee around 10:53 a.m.
The woman, who requested anonymity because of the circumstances, said she stopped at Walgreen's to use the bathroom before making her weekly trip to the Signal Street store. The 42-year-old "every day mother" of four, who suffers from anxiety and depression, said the medication she takes makes her "have to go to the bathroom a lot."
"I went over to the (store) for not even 10 minutes and then all of a sudden I couldn't even move," she said. "I needed to use the bathroom ... asked them and they said no and I begged them and cried and made quite an ass out of myself and they said go ahead and pee on the floor so I peed on the floor standing near the bathroom that they would not let me go in."
The woman named the store employee who told her to "pee on the floor," but that employee declined to speak with a reporter.
Carol Hirt, the store manager, witnessed what took place. She said the employees were following a longstanding store policy not to allow people to use the bathrooms and were not aware of the codes. Stressing nobody was trying to be mean to the woman, Hirt said it didn't make sense to her that the woman didn't take their advice and go to a nearby business to use the facilities as other patrons do.
"If she had the time to shop and the time to argue with us then she would have had the time to go to the bathroom," Hirt said. Later in the day, Hirt said, "We were just told ... that we have to do it (have public restrooms) so we'll do it."
Hirt said this is the first time something like this happened, but not the first time customers, young and old, have relieved themselves in the store, like in dressing rooms. "I'm very sorry it had to happen," she said.
Link to the full story here.
That's enough to make you want to take up drinking.