re: Five day old bait left in ice chest.

I was living in a small cinder block house about a 1/4 mile from St Pete Beach one summer and I had caught a cooler full of crabs one night and forgot about it when I got home. There may have been some alcohol involved.

3 days later I am sitting in the living room with the noisy old window shaker running as hard as it can run when there is a knock at the front door which is obviously the law...I don't know how they do it but they have a distinctive way of knocking. I immediately run through the inventory of why the police would be at the door....there ain't no drugs left and there ain't no unpaid tickets or bench warrants that I am aware of...I ain't driving so I ain't concerned about insurance etc (always an issue at the time LOL)...so I confidently go to the door with the knowledge that it ain't me they are looking for....and sure enough 2 deputies are standing there when I open the door...and they tell me that the neighbors are complaining about the stench of a dead body somewhere in the neighborhood and that it seems to be coming from my side yard. I was, of course, horrified to contemplate that someone had died in the yard....and wasn't completely certain that the cops weren't implying that maybe I had something to do with that persons death...then the wind shifted subtly and I knew immediately what the problem was. I was actually relieved even though a $10 cooler being tossed in the dumpster was a lot of money at the time LOL...I showed the cops the cooler and explained that I had forgotten it was there....they didn't ask how I forgot, no doubt due to the stench...and got the hell out of dodge after telling me I had to do something with that stinking mess LOL...