Inspector Clouseau is flumoxed and needs your help

[harryhides]

In 20 yrs of doing Inspections of Carpet mystery stains for Insurance Companies, this one has to be one of the strangest.

Well kept 20 yr old home, two seniors live here, no kids and no pets.
Carpet is less than 6 months old.
Break and enter hoods took off with some loot and left no damage except this very strange line you see running up approx ten steps of the stairs but ONLY on the risers. Note the bottom few and the the top few were unaffected. The steps and the bull noses are all clean ?? Yeeeeeah, I know !!

Checked for pH = neutral.
Tested with clean white towel and water, an acid spotter, a solvent and an alkaline spotter - nothing - no response at all.
The lines do fluoresce under a UV light though.

Any ideas or theories of how a line like this could have been created and what product could have caused it.

I have scratched my head a few times on this one and no clue.

 

[Desk Jockey]

It's not a rub mark from dragging something heavy up or down the steps?

 

[Jeremy]

Is it only on the risers?

 

[Mikey P]

upper step riser in the 1st photo looks like bleach damage

 

[Shawn Forsythe]

One of perps was wearing spurs that had old urine residue from poor lavatory habits.

 

[harryhides]

Problem with those two theories is that not all of the steps were affected and none of the bullnoses either. Hard to imagine something that would contact the risers but NOT the bull nose of the steps or the treads either.

Shawn's notion while sounding absurd is theoretically possible - do we have any cowboys here ?
Richard do you wear spurs when hunting varmits ?

 

[harryhides]

upper step riser in the 1st photo looks like bleach damage

Pretty sure that bleach does not fluoresce under UV light ??

The discoloration did appear to be surface only - just a flesh wound.

 

[Desk Jockey]

NO....why have you been talking to my wife.

I do look at them, I like the sound, but I'm not getting up on those dumb horses!

 

[Mikey P]

Was the old couple getting frisky on the stair case recently?

 

[Desk Jockey]

The bullnose looks a little disturbed too. They dragged something heavy. Ask the couple what was taken, something heavy is missing !

 

[Guest]

A heavy animal cage which leaked urine.






























:roll:

 

[Ed]

Most probably something the homeowner did prior to the break-in and either they just noticed it or are trying to get new carpet out of the incident. Any type of a loss makes a homeowner hyper-aware and they start noticing things that were there all along, they simply had grown accustomed to the damage. Of course once the loss has happened they try to tie the damage to the loss so it will be fixed. I see it on a regular basis.

Has anyone simply tried cleaning it? If it goes away, who gives a crap. Since it seems to be isolated on the risers, it's probably transfer from the toe of a boot/shoe. The perp probably pissed on his shoe just prior to ascending the stairs.

 

[XTREME1]

how do you know it was from the break-in????????????? You could be chasing a ghost

 

[-JB-]

there's more to the story. guaranteed.

 

[blaisesdaddy]

I think Ed's theory is the closest...amazing what people notice when their awareness is sparked.

 

[Shane T]

Its hard to tell from the pics but do the stripes line up with each other exactly?

 

[R W]

Famous Clouseau line:

Clouseau: Does your dog bite?
Hotel Clerk: No.
Clouseau: [bowing down to pet the dog] Nice doggie.
[Dog barks and bites Clouseau in the hand]
Clouseau: I thought you said your dog did not bite!
Hotel Clerk: That is not my dog.


Line looks like something heavy was eased down the steps, and whatever came to a rest on the riser had maybe.....urine or a bleaching cleaning product in it.

 

[truckmount girl]

They stole the toilet, put it on a hand truck and it rubbed the risers as it went down. There was toilet bowl cleaner in it......and urine. LOL.

Or, one of the perps had a bum leg. They had white polish on their shoes and as the drug the bum leg up the stairs, the polish transfered from the toe of the shoe.

Take care,
Lisa

 

[Mikey P]

I have scratched my head a few times on this one and no clue.

I hope you vacuumed up the dandruff.

 

[The Great Oz]

Problem began pre-installation. Possibly a trace of seam sealer.

 

[Desk Jockey]

 

[harryhides]

I agree that Ed came closest to the mark on this one.
It just was not that obvious and they had to point out the lines to me at first.
The lines did not line up as your eye traveled up the stairs.
When I looked at it, the only thing that came to mind that might fit the pattern was if some grand-kid had a spray bottle of something like Resolve or Simple Green, set the sprayer on "stream" and blasted away but only once. I've never met any kid with that kind of control.

The problem with the dragging idea was that several steps had zero damage and none of the bull-noses had any significant damage despite Richards clinical and microscopic analysis.

Nothing heavy was stolen.

Thanks for all of the ideas.

This frustrating head-scratcher has been brought to you by Inspector Clouseau.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Dragged! LOL