CORRECTION: THIS ARTICLE BELOW TOOK PLACE AT THE HOUSTON CEMETERY IN SUWANNEE COUNTY, NOT MCCLELLAN. WE APOLOGIZE FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE THIS MAY HAVE CAUSED.

Cemetery trash yields unusual find

Photo of the trash beside the cemetery fence. A dump of 30 unopened bottles of Theraflu, Dayquil, and Mucinex with a yellow shopping cart from Dollar General was found at the Houston Cemetery recently.                -Photo: Jennings Bunn II

 By Tami Stevenson

Edited -

Live Oak, Florida – The Houston Cemetery, in Suwannee County, has had an advocate for the past ten years, a Suwannee County resident that has no one buried there and does not receive any monetary reward for his care. He mows the grass, picks up trash and just tries to ‘give the folks that have gone on before us respect,’ as he puts it.

During Jennings Bunn II’s ten years of picking up trash found on the cemetery grounds, he said he has picked up beer cans, soda cans & bottles, cardboard containers, baby diapers, a family dump of personal items, and two old tires for good measure. 

“I’ve recovered used (prophylactics), and hypodermic syringes.  However, (recently) I discovered in the small patch of woods beside the cemetery fence, a dump of 30 unopened bottles of Theraflu, Dayquil, and Mucinex with a yellow shopping cart from Dollar General,” said Bunn.

He said he notified the Suwannee County Sheriff’s Office immediately.  A sheriff’s deputy was there within 30 minutes. “After seeing the trash, (the deputy) told me that such drugs are used to make methamphetamines.” Bunn added there wasn’t much the deputy could do unless he witnessed it or that Bunn had seen someone actually dumping the trash, which he had not.

“So, my wife and I are cleaning up the mess made by uncaring humans.” He said they later learned from a local retail store clerk that when drugs like that expire they are thrown into the dumpster. The clerk informed them that “Dumpster Divers” know precisely when this takes place, and they dive in to the dumpsters to get them during the night. 

“Ultimately, enough of any of that stuff consumed is deadly,” Bunn said, and wanted readers to be aware.