Urine found in ice at senior-living center

Urine found in ice at senior-living center: Owner suspects disgruntled workers
Urine soaked ice was found in an Idaho senior assisted living center. The owner says she thinks it might be disgruntled former employees.


By Meghann M. Cuniff

The Spokesman-Review

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The soda tasted like urine, so she poured a new can into a different ice-filled glass.

After another sip, Kathleen Chmura realized it wasn't the soda that was tainted — it was the ice, taken from a bin at the By the Lake senior assisted living center she owns in Hayden, Idaho.

Chmura suspects the urine-soaked ice bin was the final move by an employee who'd joined two other employees in a September walkout to protest the firing of two employees three days earlier.

Before walking out, the three employees woke up the residents and told them the facility was closing and everyone had been fired, according to a Kootenai County Sheriff's Department report.

Chmura discovered the bin later that day.

She told the story to a Kootenai County deputy Wednesday while reporting suspected theft and fraud by the former employees.

"I won't put up with this crap," Chmura said in an interview Thursday.

Chmura fired two employees Sept. 23 because she suspected they'd been stealing money and prescription drugs from the center, according to the report by Deputy J. D. Brandel.
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