Medical waste dumped in southwest Detroit alley

DETROIT - A man's dog comes home with a syringe sticking out of its foot.

After a little investigating, the man finds boxes and bags of medical waste  dumped in an alley.

Darryl Brown always lets his dog run the alley behind his southwest Detroit house. But this time she came limping back with something sticking out of her foot.

"I thought it was icicle hanging off her foot because she was limping and it was a syringe off her foot and I was like where did that come from?

It didn't take long for Darryl to discover someone had dumped boxes and bags of medical waste.

FOX 2: "What did you find?"

"Syringes, thousands are in those boxes," he said. "There is blood vials, there is gauze, and everything you would have in a clinic. It's in there."

With a pair of tongs, Darryl reached in and pulled out patient files and paperwork belonging to Dr. Oscar Apoian on Vernor Highway in Detroit, just down the street for his neighborhood.

"This really gets me mad," he said. 

It turns out that Dr. Apoian, who court records show had been convicted of Medicaid fraud, had died. The clinic had closed and the building had been sold.

FOX 2 called David Alley, the man on this sign, who told us they are working to buy the building and clean it out, in hopes of tearing it down. He says he was shocked to find out the people he paid to dump the hazardous waste, chose to do it in the alley off Woodmere street.

"I want it cleaned up so they are on their way right now," Alley said.

Ten minutes later his son a couple of guys and a big white truck showed up and began to haul away the medical waste.

"We paid a guy to go take it to the dump," said one of them men cleaning it up. "And the guy put the money in his pocket and I guess he dumped it here."

FOX 2 was told they plan to take the waste to a dump in Dearborn.

For Darryl, who takes pride in his neighborhood and works hard to keep the streets clean, he's just glad it's gone.

The needle in the dog was dirty, but Darryl was able to get antibiotics for her and she is expected to be fine.