Service Driver Kills 61-year-old man

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An intoxicated service driver Joseph Lopez backed up over 61-year-old Peter Toulson crushing his skull and killing him. Lopez works for New Jersey based Zuidima Portable Toilets.

The incident took place at a construction site, Friday April 4th, in the town of Englewood where Lopez had just completed servicing one of the company’s units.

Responding to the incident police smelled marijuana on the driver and charged him with vehicular homicide and driving while intoxicated.

Service Technican Shot Dead

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April 3, 2008 9:30 AM- Charlotte, North Carolina

An employee of Charlote, North Carolina based A Sani Can was shot to death while running his route. The incident took place about 70 miles outside of Charlotte in the rural community of Lake Wylie.

Witnesses reported that there was some kind of confrontation between the driver and an area resident leading to the shooting. The resident has been taken into custody.
The name of the driver has not been yet released but according to witnesses on the scene the driver was married and had children.

The victim’s truck was found adjacent to portable toilets at a construction site. Police noted that the weapon used was a small-calibur handgun and that no further information regarding the conflict was available at this time.

A Sani Can has been in business servicing the area for more than 30 years.

Lincoln, Nebraska -Toilet Warfare

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At least it appears to be. Al’s Johns has been the target of four incidents during the past four weeks. Incidents that have included a blow-up attempt, an actual blow-up and fire. Enough activity to make someone really wonder what is really going on.

Police have executed a warrant tieing a custom mini blind slat found at the scene of one exploding unit with an owner. Other evidence has been secured.

The good news for Al’s Johns owner Thressa Branding is that she has not had to clean up any of the messes. The vandals have been very thorough in total destruction.

Beijing Olympics identifies problem with squat toilets

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For most of Asia the standard position for toilets (interior and portable) is of the squat variety. The function requires the user to position themselves over the receptacle and squat as close as is possible. The goal is to not make contact with any portion of the toilet.

The arrival of the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers to the newly erected Olympic baseball venue created new dialogue when it was revealed that the squat type was the only toilet available. All permanent toilets in the 37 venues are of the squat variety, a reasonable action considering the fact that 31 of the venues are actually in Beijing.

The Olympic Committee says the intend on addressing the westerner concerns by bringing in sit-down toilets. The Olympic games are scheduled to be held August 8-24 with more than 500,000 foreigners expected to attend.

Second explosion in Lincoln, Nebraska

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For the second time this week, construction sites in the Lincoln Nebraska area have had bomb threats involving portable toilets.

This time the bomb exploded taking the unit out of service. The unit was discovered by an employee of Al’s Johns who services units out of Raymond. No one was hurt. Police continue to investigate what has become a series of attacks on portable toilets. It was just last Monday that another unit was discovered with a pipe bomb inside. Authorities had safely removed the bomb and detonated it once it was outside of the city limits

Live Bomb - Lincoln, Nebraska

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Lincoln, Nebraska Utility workers got a jolt Monday February 25th going into a portable toilet to escape the cold instead stumbling upon a live bomb. Fire and Rescue workers determined that the bomb was indeed live, contained the bomb, removed it away from the city where officials detonated it. No one was hurt. An investigation is underway to discover who made the bomb and planted it inside the toilet.

Investment Group Touts Toilets and Burritos as top investments

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While a mystery exist over the investment of private equity money into the portable sanitation industry the attraction has caught the attention of Blue Sky Private Equity who already has expanded their investments into Australia based Viking Rental.

Blue Sky director Robertson Brooks says that the Queensland based company provides portable toilets, power poles and temporary fence and has experienced tremendous growth due to the infrastructure construction taking place. Brooks sees Viking growing into the number one provider for Queensland within the coming year.

What’s hot for this investment group seems to be portable sanitation and burritos. Apparently among some of the diverse investments this company has agreed to fund is a second in what could become a franchise "Beach Burrito Company café’. Brooks says that these two companies are the type of businesses they were looking for as investments in the new Blue Sky SME Investment Partners Fund.

Credit Suisse reveals overvaluing of assets

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Credit Suisse who is tied to United Site Services through their private equity investment affiliate DLM Merchant Bank revealed that they would be taking a $1 billion hit to their first-quarter profits.

Suisse is expected to still post a profit for the quarter but said the $1 billion hit was due to a handful of traders that were overvaluing assets. Suisse further revealed that these traders had been suspended. Traders had been accused of overvaluing assets of the company by about $2.85 billion.

Credit Suisse warned that last year’s numbers could still be affected by the overvaluation. Credit Suisse Chief Executive Brady Dougan was quoted as explaining that traders were not keeping their numbers up-to-date which led to the overvaluation and that while an investigation is in place he didn’t believe that this is a case of outright fraud.

Suspicious Florida Fire Rages Through 340 Units

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Arson detectives are coming up empty as they investigate a fire that authorities are calling suspicious. A fire ripped through a fenced Tampa Bay, Florida portable toilet yard owned by Comfort Zone Portables, melting to the ground 340 Portable toilets in a span of 15 minutes.

Early estimates of damage are hovering in the $130,000 range.

An Eight Car Pile-Up Occurred North of Denver

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A United Site Services driver was cited after losing a portable toilet off of his flat bed truck on Hwy 1-25 last week. The incident took place just North of Denver during the early morning commute. Some minor injuries were reported. Most of the collisions including one vehicle that rolled came about as motorist attempted to avoid hitting the portable toilet.