*There is no image of the plush available publicly so this is an approximation of what it looked like*
I assume that some of you, if not most have heard about orphan sources. Nuclear components lost and thus free to do horrors unto the world. There was the Kramatork radiological accident where a family in Ukraine discovered a orphan source in their apartment wall after multiple children of theirs died of radiation sickness, and the Goiania accident in Brazil where 250 people got contaminated by a source from a abandoned radiation-therapy machine.
However the strangest orphan source incident in history is believed not to be an accident, but a planned attempt at nuclear murder.
This is the story of the orphan plush incident in Theresa Wisconsin.
[The following has been gathered from multiple accounts and police reports. If I leave something out please excuse me]
It started on a calm afternoon, on Friday 17th 2005. Two friends named Ronald Jones and Steven Suits were taking a joyride down McArthur Rd where they saw a odd sight ahead to their right in a forested area.
Curious, the two parked their car on the side of the road and went into the trees, the leaves shining under the spring sun.
They discovered that the brightly colored object they saw amongst the trees was none other than a Patrick Star plush sitting neatly on the ground and propped up by a tree.
The two were rightfully weirded out by this and took the plush, put it in the back of their car, and went to a police station to see if this plush by chance had to do with any missing persons case.
Thankfully the police assured them that there were no missing persons reported in that town. Which provided some relief for the two that they weren't holding a possession of a kidnapped or possibly dead child. However this further made them more confused. While getting back into the car from the police station Steven had reported to have said, "Well that was weird. Who do you think left that there?"
"I have no idea." replied Ron. "Guess it's ours now..."
At Stevens house the two discussed about what they were going to do with the plush.
"We considered to sell it online but it was obvious that it was a bootleg" said Ron. "It was probably worth next to nothing. We later decided to sell it at a yard sale later that week." Little did they know that decision would be the worst mistake they ever made.
During the last 2 days the plush was stored in Stevens closet on a shelf. He started to feel ill but he attributed it to a cold or flu and thought it would blow over.
The day arrived for the yardsale. Steven set some of the tables up but later got very tired and so he called Ron to take over for him, Ron was also starting to feel ill, however he attributed this to flu season and agreed to help.
Ron put the plush on a table along with the other miscellaneous objects.
16 people visited the yard sale.
16 exposures.
16 lives.
16 sick.
Unknowingly, Ron and Steve was exposing people to high doses of radiation. A day after. The two was rushed to the emergency room in an ambulance. The 16 other unfortunate souls arrived in the days following.
The authorities took interest as the Froedtert West Bend Hospital got suddenly flooded with patients possessing radiation burns, along with other radiation caused injuries.
All of them reported to have been at a yard sale before they slowly began to fall ill.
The NRC was called to investigate any object displayed or sold at the yard sale. All of them normal amounts of background radiation except one object that according to NRC employee Harold Scuthberg "Made the geiger counter scream like hell."
Sadly on that day Steven, the person in the most contact with the plush, died of radiation sickness. His friend still held on.
And thus began the investigation of what would be the strangest piece of nuclear waste ever found.
After inspection in a safe environment, it was discovered that someone tore a hole in the side of the plush and then stitched it back up. Ron later said that because the plush was a bootleg he and Steve assumed that the weird stitches on the side were not out of the ordinary.
An NRC employee later opened the plush in a sealed chamber. They pulled a 8x5 cylinder of Cesium 137 out of the toy.
And the plush was sold by the way. Sold to a young boy aged 6. The boy died in the hospital soon after the purchase...
The incident gave 18 people radiation poisoning and claimed 14 lives.
The question soon arose of, "Why does this exist?"
No one had dealt with a case like this before. Many theories arose. One of them was that because the cylinder of Cesium was likely used in radiation-therapy it was speculated that on of the machines were replaced and someone had to get rid of the cylinder. And thus for some reason sewed it up into the plush and threw it on the side of the road.
Of course this theory failed to take into account why someone would sew nuclear waste inside a plushie and throw it on the side of a road not just throw it out safely.
It is also known that the plush was not thrown. It was according to Ron, in fact very good condition and was neatly propped up on the tree it was under.
Someone must have walked into the woods and placed the plush. And so came the most accepted theory.
Murder.
No one could find any other explanation other than some psycho got their hands on the cesium cylinder and decided to maliciously kill people in one of the worst ways possible.
So who was this person?
That's the problem. No one knew. There was no fingerprints, genetic evidence or anything other than the hand sewn stitches on the side of the plush.
The county police was going to issue out a public report but someone stopped them from doing so.
It was Nickelodeon.
Despite the plush being a illegal bootleg Nickelodeon still considered the plush one of their characters and did not want to associate Patrick Starfish with this horrific event.
The company bribed the county police 2 million to not release the case to the public. The police complied.
Years later some people have leaked the story, however I don't expect it to be well known anytime soon.
I imagine where the plush and its radioactive heart is now. Probably somewhere in New Mexico or Nevada.
In a barrel or box.
In a cave cut in stone.
1000 meters below.