 Do you ever wonder what happens when the police leave? Crime scene cleaners are private companies that handle the cleanup after the police are gone. Spaulding Decon is one of the nation's largest cleanup companies handling the aftermath of homicides, suicides, decompositions, hoarding and much more. These are our stories. My name is Laura Spaulding and we are here in Brandon, Florida in front of our 2020 holiday hoarding giveaway recipient and we're really going to be able to change this person's life by giving her a brand new beginning. I'm going to give her all this trash, the high ammonia from all of her cats. Thank you everyone for being here for our 2020 holiday hoarding giveaway. I really appreciate it. Let the games begin. I think we had about 20 volunteers here. She can't find her shoes. She has no bed to sleep in. So I think these cats are never let out. They're pooping in their own cage. This is not good. Does this one get let out at all? Ever? No. Oh my gosh. How long has this home been ordered for? It's been about 25 years. Have you had fun? This is probably the biggest spider we've seen on a site so far. Fire! Fire! Oh, here comes Laura. Laura hates spiders. Fire! No! This is the worst one. Oh my God. 25 years. Out of all the fridges that I've done in 15 years, that was the worst. Right now, she's hyper-emotional and she can't control her compulsion to just get us out and push us away because she feels threatened right now. Wait a minute. Oh my God. I had a thing that was here. No, we brought it out to you. It's keys. Dammit! I didn't even think about that. Dammit! My name is Laura Spalding and we are here in Brandon, Florida in front of our 2020 holiday hoarding giveaway recipient. And this house really meets our criteria because it's in level five condition and we're really going to be able to change this person's life by giving her a brand new beginning. We're going to get rid of all this trash, the high ammonia from all of her cats and we're going to be able to work with a lot of great small businesses who are really awesome at donating their time and their services and we're going to make this a fun event and it's really awesome that we're going to be able to give this gift right before Christmas. I live in Brandon, Florida. My name is Hollis Billings. Things weren't always this way. I took care of my mama and the life and then there was issues after that with my health and everything and things just kind of took a slide where they'd never been before and it's like quicksand the harder you fight it, the deeper you sink and it was a situation that's odd but the more I fought it, it just didn't seem to get any better so I just kept praying about it and praying about it and my neighbor next door sticking tight with me and everything and it seems like now this could be the answer to my prayers because then everything can be brought to normal on one shebang professionally like it's supposed to be and then I can have the rest of my life just at peace and keeping everything look pretty and be who I need to be. If you were chosen for this, you have to promise me you will not let it get to this situation again. I won't. The only reason I was told the thing was what she was doing to me I went into my 401k, my precious 401k and annihilated it for my mom I went into that for mom because it was anything for mom Daddy made me, in his life, made me promise that I would not leave her and I would stick with her or watch her because of this sister we're talking about and she has a twin. He said those first two will take your mother down he goes you have to make me a promise before I die that you will stick with your mother and you will guard her and stay with her and I wasn't real happy all the time because daddy died when I was 20 I said daddy she's never liked me, she's always treated me like crap and beneath me and I said you're as long as I start crying he was telling me to end the life and he said she loves you he said you have to guard your mother, you have to stick with your mom so I did. Mom died in 2010 in my mid to late 40s then I guess it was and I stuck with her. I got people in my attic a lot harassing tearing up on the roof so they did something to the pipe up there and it started dripping by the time I knew what they were doing it had wet sheet rock and I woke up the one morning and the whole panel of sheet rocks on the floor was like ruining children's lives smell the difference it's not a perfect fit where the sheet rock started wearing on the edges and stuff was falling through it's like a powdery substance it's not dust it's like a powdery stuff because I've come up on them before just in two weeks you will have a complete transformation so we're going to help you actually you're saving my life you have no idea the only reason that I haven't done something drastic is because of the kids because I knew that if I wasn't around that they would be used so I had to hang in there for them and I'm sitting there and I kept praying hard and I thought it looks like there's a brick wall on all sides there's no way out to solve this what the hell am I gonna do she has me to the back to the wall bad she's not gonna be able to do much once the house is looking good she's already been back and forth here this morning driving back she's looking at things because her whole thing is to take me down when mom died I knew that mom did not die naturally and I went into a spiral deep depression I spent a long time doing nothing but crying all day until I puked and then I puked and then keep crying again until I puked because I was devastated and mortified and justice was not being taken care of a situation and there seemed like there was nothing I could do about it except accept it and I didn't want to accept it and I still don't want to accept it because I know she had something to do with it well we gotta move forward now and we're gonna give you a new beginning that's good I love it here I really hope that you maintain oh I will and I want y'all I'm gonna come back and check on you I want you to I want to come back that's a good thing I want you to and I like you you're a good person well thank you and you too I already told you that so I feel like my prayers came and they sent angels there you go alright he's probably an angel too he is I get my life back yeah probably takes her a little bit to get to the door because of the mountain accord in there in all fairness it would probably take me a good 20 minutes to get from the back bedroom to the front door because of the mountains and mountains of trash in there good morning Alice good morning are you excited I can't find my sandals are you excited though I'm happy I'm blessed look at this we're gonna get it all over here he looks so cute this is adorable yeah I didn't know if it was that or even as a kid if I get real nervous yeah cause it's still a freaking mess it's supposed to be that's why I'm here no I thought I would have all this stuff purged out oh no no no no there's this stuff here I'll handle this first don't worry don't worry okay so what's going on with the cats do we need to put those in the cages they cannot be outside these days okay I'm gonna need your help with that yes I'm gonna also if you can put them in the cage I can set them in the back hand me that big chicken maybe she'll give me a golden egg we're off to a good start she's in good spirits she's nervous so that means she's excited I'd like to count the cats because she doesn't even know how many she has woah oh there's a chicken because the chicken have food I'll tear up some bread for that is completely unsanitary this chicken needs to be released we have this poor thing some food she's not attacking the food so she must be somewhat well fed there you go there's one of the rescues that they chased around the neighborhood and while they were killing the others is that only food or water does this one get let out at all ever no well in the house he can be but he can't be let out outside no I mean in the house yeah because he's like pooping in the back of his cage yes he's upset because he had so much stuff happened to him before he was rescued that's not normal so I think these cats are never let out they're pooping in their own cage this is not good see animal hoarders they typically have really good intentions of saving the animals but then it ends up like this it's out of control the animals are suffering they either don't have food they're not spayed and neutered there's no medical attention she's not even getting medical attention so how are the animals getting that it comes a point where those good intentions really expire and they get overwhelmed and they don't know what to do with them and these cats these animals are not well they're not well at all maybe we can see if some vet resources can come take a look at them she can't find her shoes she has no bed to sleep in I mean if anyone needs our help it's Hollis Hollis needs our help so I am so glad that we are here not only for her but for the animals Fiona what are we getting ready for today for the hoarding giveaway of 2020 so this is everything that we're going to need is right here the viewers can expect a lot of unexpected stuff Laura promised that we'll all have fun so we'll see how it goes good morning my name is Rebecca I've just joined the Spaulding Decon crew this is my first job extremely excited as the rest of the crew about the 2020 holiday giveaway what's up man how you doing pretty good good yo G yo G right here John I'm back when I initially asked her how many she goes a lot and I go are we talking like a hundred no no no not that many like fifty no and I said ten and she goes well a little more than that how many more do we have if you count it and it's cats it's ten ten cats there'll be three more three more okay goodie and lizard if I sat down to pee and that jumped in my bag I would not be participating today I just don't do lizards I didn't grow up with them not one out underneath they're all good see you on the flip side hey there my name is Raven Snoffer I am the National Accounts Manager here at Spaulding Decon this lovely Saturday morning we're out here in Brandon this has been the culmination of about a month and a half of work for us over here at Spaulding we've gotten a lot of local sponsors you know just able to give either some funds or you know time out of their busy days and busy schedules to come help us with this opportunity so my name is Margie Parker I came here from Fayetteville Tennessee which is just north of the Alabama border and I've been following Spaulding Decon for about five months now so when I saw that Laura wanted to have volunteers come I had already been wanting to come and work for Laura so I said this would be an opportunity for me to come and see if this is for me and if this is something I want to do maybe as a career so what are you looking for at the moment seeing the homeowner at the very end when they come in the home and they look around and everything is gone everything is clean my name is Jordan I am signing everybody in today we got coffee donuts and then forms PPE everybody gets a tieback to a shirt booties and an N95 as you should and a job like this thank you everyone for being here for our 2020 holiday awarding giveaway I really appreciate it we'll start removing things kind of slowly so I suggest that you pair up with a full time staff member and they can kind of guide you through let the games begin oh yeah what does it need to have this many volunteers coming out to help out this is so awesome I'm so grateful I think we had about 20 volunteers here the super impressive part is we literally had a volunteer that drove from Tennessee to come hang out with us and work with us so that is I mean the power of social media that's the power of social media it's so impressive and I can't thank these people enough are you excited for this? absolutely I've never done any of this before I'm just excited to get in there see what it's all about I think that's awesome definitely glad to be here and helping out the family I just found the information to the house this is one of the three things that we were looking for actually in this house and this it's like a needle haystack so as a matter of fact that we found it that's what's up hey guys my name's Nico we're here at the holiday it's something great that we're doing we're giving back to the community it's a great feeling just to be here and to see all these people here I put them what the hell that is what is that it's a tile full of bathroom things we're not saving them huh? we're not giving them that's a rule can that recycle with a plastic can you know I've used those around the house so I can just wash them out and keep using them okay but you're not going to keep using them okay no I'm probably not speaking my language yeah this is very typical the best thing for us to do right now is get a roll of duct tape and a chair and just put her in it no I'm totally kidding we're not going to do that she just needs to calm down what are you guys doing back here what's the objective we are cleaning as much as we can to in a place where the homeowner isn't able to readily go right now to speed up our process before the therapist gets here hi my name's Skip Curlott I'm a new franchise owner for the Chicagoland area and I'm excited to be here today my mom is actually a hoarder and I'm excited to help out someone that is in need and I hope that it changes her life in a positive way oh not the chair hit him with the chair April 2016 my name is Christine Zyne McCombs I am the community outreach officer in Hillsborough County code enforcement so I handle all the cases here in Hillsborough County where we have code violations that actually happen to people that are in hardship situations that's where people just are not able to take care of violations by themselves so what I do is I always look for resources and try to help them out so that they don't have to lose their home that's my sunglasses my precious sunglasses oh this is okay thumb down thumb down thumb down so Laura can you explain the organizational process here so we have keep and trash there's no donate because of the condition that it's in so we're trying to go through all this stuff and find like personal paperwork how long is this home in um 44 for about 25 years she's your typical hoarder mentality she's severely focused on one thing and she gets scattered she's getting panicked that people are touching her stuff right now she's hyper-emotional and she can't control her um compulsion to just get us out and push us away because she feels threatened right now have you been in the house yet or no from what I understand we only have two people in the house at the moment they're having a hard time it's been almost an hour and getting in and we brought it out to you it's keys no it's all my keys like in a cloth pouch thing oh my god it's all the keys because I have men come stuff on these things it's a whole lot of keys they would have been in here where I had the stuff stacked up because we're going through everything for you you wouldn't know they're keys we're just not leaving here until I have my F and keys a lot of stuff with tags on it still it was a purse $100 tag on it not taken out a lot of stuff new and then just a lot of papers a lot of papers from 2006 I'm Penny Holmes I'm the controller this is my first experience with something like this I usually sit behind the desk crunching the numbers so it's feel good especially around this time when you want to give you want to do some volunteer work at Christmas time to help people out and your daughter's here too right? my daughter's right over there yep she's getting her hands in there too and she likes to be a volunteer I'm here my mom works for Spalding Deacon I think it's just really nice to help during this time of year especially because so many people need this kind of help and aren't able to get it so it's nice to see her get that Hi I'm Paula I'm from Louisiana and this is my first tour and I'm kind of excited to see how it goes so that when I get to my state I am prepared or at least halfway prepared pass this out thank you so much thank you so much for this and I told you I would find this what's that? the bottom of that pass you're welcome nice did that fun? this is probably the biggest spider we've seen on a site so far and a bag there was a 50 bag there fire come on die no are you doing that? no camera the franchise development manager here at Spalding Decon this is actually my first time on a live poor job or seeing it in person and I definitely can say it's overwhelming part of my job is to sell the service to get candidates that want to buy into Spalding Decon but I have to be able to express what they're going to be doing on these jobs and I couldn't imagine that it would be something like this franchisees here right now going through with this it's just one of those just something you can't really honestly express definitely having the hoarder here on site you can just see the emotional attachment that she has to everything and it's just heartbreaking it really is we got the name for this one what's that? spider bill spider bill? bro there's spiders everywhere in this thing oh big boy big boy big boy in the hole oh my god cowboy look behind it he's literally stuck hey I'm Craig Cox franchise consultant with Spalding Decon what's one thing that really sticks out to you the homeowner she made the comment that she normally wears gloves 24 hours a day so she doesn't hurt herself in her own house big boy huh? there's spiders no there's not oh my god in this hi my name is Diana Dubey and I'm here today to not only support my sister because the owner works with Spalding but also to do something good for the community and to serve the community and to help other people and I'm also here to basically just basically help and learn a little bit more about what my sister does I'm definitely out of my comfort zone so this is a self challenge for me you're the only person with makeup on that's so funny oh my god how's it going? it's going so what was the order sibling? I am actually even though she looks old if you hear any screams it's not the cat it's me I almost didn't come just having to tie my hair up so I'm like pull your hair back it's just like put my hair back what is that? you're like a folding oak on the shelf hey gang how's it going I'm Evan Fineout I'm the staff videographer for Spalding Deacon might recognize my voice from behind the camera on a few of our most recent episodes it's a gold mine for me because there's always something happening at this job right now I've been this is honestly I'm getting anxious right now because I'm not rolling the camera but there's been all kinds of big spiders there's been all kinds of crazy finds and I think this is going to be a huge weight off of the client's shoulders once we do finally get to a stopping point and I'm really excited to see the stress and dread that she's going to right now wipe away alright the moment we've all been waiting for fridge time with Fiona oh my god damn this is the worst one this is the worst one the favorite thing to do that's milk oh 2015 that fridge hasn't worked since 2015 out of all the fridges that I've done in 15 years that was the worst I can't even describe the smell it's like we opened up bodies that have been decaying for tons of years and everybody's running out like dry heaving yeah see there you go you okay? so the initial smell was sweet potatoes the first smell was like okay sweet potatoes I can handle that I think and then it turned into like sweet potatoes makes it like I don't even know yeah poop and vomit and it's horrible it's a historical refrigerator Jordan I'm an office coordinator this is my boyfriend Michael he came out and was really sweet to help out today I'm Michael I'm Jordan's boyfriend definitely a lot messier than I had anticipated so I've watched the YouTube videos and just wanted to see it out here in person and it's it's intense what's it like actually being here the smell that got to you it's the smell that's something you won't see in the videos they're 22's and it's like small baggy in a trash can but I want to be careful when you dispose of these because you got to be careful when you place them so whenever you have bullets you place them in a special spot so did they take off with my other sandwich or are they still sitting over there they left already what did they do with my sandwich oh that must be what he handed me I don't even know where I put it when I get really stressed I start with stomach cramps and stuff like that and I get sick take a couple deep breaths for me just to get started I've got the stomach I've got to find those other two bags can you tell me five things right now that you can see that I can see tell me five things you see around us oh the canopy the chair the dumpster my life going out the window hi I'm Jennifer Dobies I'm the owner of Rear Resolutions Counseling and I was asked to come and work with this client so I was asked to come and give her some resources to kind of get her on the right track to be able to move forward and get all the things that she needs so we can get her back living a good healthy life there's a lot of background matters and you've really got to know the basis of what it is that you're working with because it's a very overwhelming feeling when we begin the clean out process for a lot of them my goal today is to make sure that first of all that she's okay as this happens because like I said it's very overwhelming to a lot of quarters when we begin this process we also want to make sure that we can get her set up if she needs some extra meal assistance making sure that she's getting if she needs therapy if there's any other type of medical issues or things that we can get her to the right resources with the county or even if there was something they'll take sure something is everything that's true and yeah God they had this all through the years if you can go through these bags I'm going to use hot water yeah I'm going to use hot water in there and soap and this too much oh yeah these are what are these they're out of the thing I'm going to make sure that she's fit I'm going to go get her and get her and get her out it smells kind of like teen spirit that's what Nirvana said my name's Jessica Frigo I am the marketing director at Spalding Peacock well I know other people might think it's weird that this feels good to be here to do this there's many other ways to spend a Saturday however because of what we're doing and the reception that we're getting from her and that she's being gifted this opportunity it just makes you feel good to be here and devote your time to something like this where you're giving back we had so many volunteers you know we actually had volunteers from across the globe we had people in Ireland people in England that wanted to come here but however with COVID restrictions not being able to travel so we are excited about future hoarding giveaways where we're going to be able to get volunteers from all over the country client on the job seeing the reaction was this what you were expecting or is this not what you were expecting so it's definitely different because I did meet the client last night when I came we dropped off the trailer last night and she came out and spoke to her and she was very nice very friendly and then today I think her anxiety got the best of her in a way that's not obviously from a clinical standpoint but just from looking at it and seeing it it's definitely like stepping inside one of our hoarding cleanup episodes when she did her initial interview with us she mentioned 98% of everything is trash and now everything is sacred even a plastic water bottle so just when we thought we were making some progress animal control is here to investigate the animal situation here and this is Alice and put her over the edge because the animals are literally all she has so I'm worried how she's going to react to this this is really terrible timing they're coming to give you a spay and neuter for 10 bucks yeah she's eating lunch right now so she's in a good place right now I think eating it's over one so we've got to make sure that we turn this to what's going to help her because this is going to be another limit in the county right but if we spay and neuter them then at least it's going to be we'll stop it right here in that way they can live out with her or so yeah Alice I have a young lady who needs to talk to you outside about what you probably lost the helmet not no no it's all fine what is it you need stevia back then I guess so oh my gosh that is creepy it's just in a plastic bag nothing no mail well we're finding cash we're finding bills from 1989 so we're having to look through everything to make sure we don't miss anything I was young yeah because I went to the U.S. hey I see I just do I do too there we go it's a fabulous university she likes her knife oh I don't have one spiderbill here you go oh you're looking good at me once you get them on the air you'll appreciate and everything will be great what's that right you got it all now alright does this thing look like it's durable enough almost filling four trailers which never thought we would do and still probably fill at least one or two more but if I come across being crashed or something like that I don't mean to be you're like on earth right now you don't have to do this you're all intelligent and physically fit you could do anything you want to do but you've dedicated yourself to helping people and I appreciate it very much you're very welcome you guys are amazing this has done a lot it's been a painful process for me I kept thinking I could do it all myself but I want to see how much it took a team to work on there's no way that I could undo this this will be a lot safer place for you to live now yes we are about the end of day one it has been a very long day we've got probably between 10 and 15 people helping us unload and this is not a very big house it's about a thousand or maybe 1100 square feet and we've gotten most of the kitchen 75% 100% of the living room 100% of one bedroom the other two bedrooms are still full the plan for tomorrow is to continue bagging up all this trash 13 cats and a chicken or something over there that we pulled out of the house two dead ones were found wrapped up in a bag I don't know why they were kept or not but volunteers and staff are spent at this point we've been working since 9am labor intensive but I also think it gives them a really good view of what we do on a daily basis and it's not just trash removal this is just very it's emotional it's very difficult physically and it just requires a lot of stamina we're super appreciative to all of our sponsors here that that helped us you know put this off or pull this off and hopefully tomorrow we will finish all of the trash removal maybe by midday and then we can start the cleaning on Monday so we are here Sunday the beginning of day two for our holiday hoarding giveaway and we knocked on the door and woke her up and she has absolutely no memory of us being here all day yesterday now on another note we look through the window in the living room and she has moved back in all the stuff that we took out there it is oh f**k what is that Fiona why is it's neck like oh god turn it around oh look at that baby holy s**t hundred three thirty three fifty baby more baby more you're making it rain I'm making it rain look at that baby what do you have three hundred and fifty dollars was in that drawer how do you look at this oh my god here's the body look guys I hope you enjoyed this episode it was a lot of fun working on this holiday hoarding giveaway project I hope you liked it as well I wanted to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy holidays and check back in a couple weeks for part two of this episode so you can see how it turned out for more information visit any of our locations