James Robinson was on his usual walk to work through an Upper Marlboro neighborhood on Thursday morning when he saw it. ‘It’ being a casket, lying on the side of the road.
“I woke up, and you know in the morning you’re not as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and I just said 'That is a casket,'” he said.
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WATCH HERENaturally, Robinson opened it and looked inside. It was empty.
Soon after, Calvin Hawkins, a representative of the neighborhood, received a phone call.
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SIGN UP “The call was an irate citizen calling about a casket in a neighborhood on the street, [saying] 'Who would do something like that, kids are going to come by from school and you can't leave that casket out here,'” Hawkins said. “So I said wait a minute - before I put my tie on - let me run out here to make sure before I make any calls. And to my surprise and amazement it was a real casket, right there. And I had to deal with it.”
An abandoned casket is considered illegal dumping, so the Prince George’s County Department of Public Works and Transportation picked it up and took it to the county recycling facility. There, it will be dismantled and recycled.
Where the casket came from, and who left it on the side of the road, remains unknown.
