La Crosse business owner finds large number of used syringes in dumpster

It was not a great find for a La Crosse business owner this week.

Don Earley, from Earley Drywall, discovered a dumpster filled with used syringes when he showed up at his place on Copeland Avenue on Monday morning.

Mountains of used hypodermic needles in his dumpster.

“It was just ridiculous,” Earley said Tuesday afternoon on WIZM. “There was hundreds and hundreds. The little tins you use to cook the heroin in there. The kits — have you. And used syringes, unused syringes.”

After some confusion about what to do with the collection of needles for the city’s fire department, among others, Hilltopper hauled the dumpster away Tuesday afternoon.

“Everybody you talk to has found one here, on there,” Earley said. “Everybody that has come to my facility has said this is by far the largest quantity that they found in a pile that somebody dumped like this.”

The DNR says the needles can’t be landfilled so, for now, the dumpster will remain at some unspecified secure location.

It’s still not clear where the needles will be disposed of eventually, or who dumped them.