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A Day in the Life
What is it like to be...a Third-Shift Custodian?
There are three shifts for custodial workers at Penn State, and two of them cover the time when most faculty and staff are gone for the day. The "Third Shift" runs from 10:00 pm to 6:30 am and typically involves collecting waste, cleaning buildings, locking doors, and turning out lights. But there are sometimes "other duties as needed," as Kevin Trostle found out two weeks ago.
"I was working a leaf blower outside of Thomas Buildinghalf an hour before midnight. I walked around a corner and found myself facing a coyote. It was three or four feet away, all huddled in the corner. I backed up inside, wondering if I was seeing things. I looked out again and thought 'Nope, that's a coyote.'"
The sound of the blower didn't scare it. It just stared back. Kevin called his supervisor, Stephanie Skebeck, who called University Police. Officer Monica Himes and Sergeant Frank Ball arrived on the scene and tried flashing their lights and making more noises. The coyote stared back.
Special training and personal experience led the whole group to the conclusion that the animal was sick and might be dangerous. By this time it was after midnight. Sergeant Matt White was called, and he followed Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) training and euthanized the coyote.
 Kevin had the training for dealing with Body Substance Isolation (BSI) where all moist fluids are considered dangerous, but he still thought the strange situation merited a call to Environmental Health and Safety (EHS).
Martha Colyer in the Work Control Center contacted Curt Speaker in EHS at 12:30 am. Curt confirmed that they should follow the normal training procedure for handling human blood spills.
Kevin donned his personal protective equipment (PPE), including gloves and eye protection. He sprayed the area with Quat Stat (disinfectant cleaner) and cleared the blood from the area. Everything was then bagged up for safe disposal.
The University Police followed PGC protocol to send the animal off for testing. They bagged the coyote and delivered it to Penn State's Animal Diagnostic Lab's overnight drop-off that deposits specimens into a cooler until the next morning when pathologists would examine it. It was sent to the State Public Health Lab in Lionville. A test for rabies came back negative, but all agree that the correct actions were taken to ensure safety.
"Something was obviously wrong," says Kevin. "It was where it shouldn't be, acting like it shouldn't act. But it was still a gorgeous animal with beautiful fur. At the end of it all, I could only think 'it's not too many nights you see a coyote.'"
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Keep chimneys clean of creosote buildup and only burn seasoned, dry wood.