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---
title: Horrified Homeowner Finds Basement Filled With Blood
description: An Iowa homeowner finds basement filled with blood and it had nothing to do with Halloween.
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author: Melissa Locker
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article:published_time: 2019-10-17T16:47:45.000Z
article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:00:54.306Z
og:title: Horrified Homeowner Finds Basement Filled With Blood
og:description: It was not a Halloween prank
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# Homeowner Who Found His Basement Flooded With Five Inches of Blood Is Having a Rough Week

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by 

[Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/)


## Melissa Locker


Oct 17, 2019 4:47 PM UTC

by 

[Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/)


## Melissa Locker


Oct 17, 2019 4:47 PM UTC

It sounds like a scene straight from a Hollywood horror film, but when an Iowa homeowner found his basement filled with blood, it was all too real.

Nick Lestina headed down to the basement of his house in Bagley, Iowa, only to be greeted with a nightmare scenario of nearly five inches of blood, fat, and bones covering the floor. It wasn’t an Iowa-based reboot of _Amityville Horror_ or an attempt to recreate the blood tide from _The Shining_ or even a [Halloween](https://time.com/5694195/halloween-decorations-angelos/) prank gone wrong. After Lestina surveyed the horrifying scene, he realized that it all had to do with choosing the wrong neighbor.

Lestina didn’t live next door to a serial killer, dispatching his victims in some gruesome manner, but a meat locker draining its bloody leftovers. [According to _The Des Moines Register_](https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2019/10/16/iowa-basement-fills-blood-meat-locker-next-door-bagley-dahls-custom-meat-locker/3986184002/), Lestina and his family of seven had peacefully lived next to a business called Dahl’s Custom Meat Locker for ten years. They had never had any problems until the literal [blood bath](https://time.com/5681198/french-bulldog-chucky-costume/) that filled Lestina’s basement, which he believes was the result of his neighbors dumping the remains of pigs and [cows](https://time.com/5526883/tinder-cows/) down a floor drain which is connected to his pipes.

KTIV News Four shared a photo of the bloody mess on social media:

> [](https://twitter.com/ktivnews/status/1184562161345011715)

After discovering the gore-filled horror show, some may have called a priest or opened a Halloween haunted house, but instead Lestina immediately reported it to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. They, in turn, called the Iowa Department of Health because blood and bones can be hazardous, especially with children in the house.


Turns out that the meat locker’s drainage system had backed up during a slaughter, which caused the [blood](https://time.com/rwanda-drones-zipline/) and gore to pour into the home’s basement. Two weeks later, the blood is still seeping into the basement and the family has had to leave their home. Lestina is working with officials, his insurance company, as well as the meat locker and its insurance company to clean up the horrifying scene.

Dahl’s Custom Meat Locker did not immediately respond to TIME’s request for comment, but co-owner Kaitlin Dahl [told _WHO-TV_](https://whotv.com/2019/10/16/dahls-meat-locker-apologizes-for-accidentally-flooding-neighbors-basement/), “We’re taking responsibility for it. It wasn’t our fault, we didn’t intentionally put the blood down there. We didn’t want this to happen. We feel for them. I’d be just as mad as they are, in their shoes.” The company also told [_The Des Moines Register_](https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2019/10/16/iowa-basement-fills-blood-meat-locker-next-door-bagley-dahls-custom-meat-locker/3986184002/) that they always planned to help cover the family’s cleanup costs.

If there is a lesson to be learned, it’s this: don’t build your house on an old cemetery and don’t live next door to a meat locker.

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