The station engineers were on the hunt for a rat or rats, a mouse or mice, that had apparently been spotted running across or near someone's desk in the radio programming area recently. My cubicle used to be in that area when I worked in radio (it still is, but it's now occupied by someone else) and I don't recall a visit from a rodent during the years I worked in that area. I've never seen one in my current office which is down the hall from the cubicle either.
The section of the building that I work in, along with the radio area, sits on a suspended floor. The floor we all walk on and work over is about 18 inches above the cement slab that the building sits on. The suspended floor provides the space for fiber optic cable and other wiring to connect the dozens of computers and electronics that make a facility like the one I work in operate.
One thing that space does provide is a place for things (or creatures) besides the wiring to exist. So, the engineers started lifting panels from the floor this afternoon to look underneath in an attempt to spot any rogue rodents running around down there.
The search for potential rodents unearthed the deceased lizard, beetle and cockroach. The lizard was approximately six inches long, the two companions found with it were around 1 1/2 inches long each. It was quickly obvious that all three had been dead for a while. Their corpses were stuck in a glue trap tray. I didn't ask the engineers, but I'm wondering if the glue trap was down there because there had been a concern years ago there was rats/mice running around and instead the lizard, beetle and cockroach were victims of glue trap murder while the intended targets were smart enough to avoid the sticky trap of doom.
I stepped up to the open panel and shot a picture. Then, I started thinking about how compelling a (hopefully) fictional story it would be to write a murder mystery that featured bodies of the victims hidden under the floor (since there's plenty of space to hide a lifeless body). That was followed by me wondering why I'd think of that in the first place since I always look for the funny twist in everything and that story wouldn't have one. Final determination: I'd make a lousy murder mystery writer.
R.I.P. to the lizard, beetle and cockroach. If you were screaming when you got stuck in the glue trap, your cries for help were drowned out by soft rock music playing above you.
 |
| Lizard, cockroach, and beetle dead in a glue trap under the floor. Hopefully the glue fumes provided you a painless death. |