Family's Basement Fills With Blood From Meat Locker Next Door

The Lestina family's basement looks a little like the bloody elevator scene from "The Shining."

The Iowa house's lower floor is ankle deep in blood, fat and waste from a neighboring business, according to Nick Lestina, whose family has lived next door to Dahl's Meat Locker for 10 years without a problem.

Until now, just as the Lestinas were about to put their Iowa home on the market.

"I was shocked at first, but I had a pretty good idea where it came from," Lestina told WLVT-TV. 

According to Lestina, the meat business next door had dumped hog and cattle remains down a floor drain that is connected to his pipes. That resulted in the bloody mess that gurgled up in his basement.

"Nobody wants to see that, smell that. I wouldn't want for anybody to have that in their house," Lestina said. He contacted the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, which advised him to move his family out of their home because of possible health hazards.

The meat locker owners apologized and said they would pay cleanup costs.

"We're taking responsibility for it," co-owner Kaitlin Dahl told the station. "It wasn't our fault. We didn't intentionally put the blood down there. We didn't want this to happen. We feel for them. I'd be just as mad as they are, in their shoes."

Meanwhile, the Lestinas are staying with other family members.

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