Exorcism for Lumber in Home Depot Aisle Prompts Group's Removal
You've seen exorcisms take place in movies and TV shows, but have you ever seen one in the lumber aisle of a Home Depot?
Police in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania received a bizarre call on Monday that "disorderly people" were performing an exorcism "for the dead trees" at Home Depot in Dickson City, a police report described.
"They were escorted out of the building," the report ended.
One officer from the Dickson City police told the PhillyVoice that "It was a séance type of thing for the dead."
"There were two people hanging out in the lumber department doing their little exorcism thing," the officer said. "Some people at the store started picking up that something was happening that was not necessarily normal. Police were called to the store and they were escorted out of the building."
The individuals in question will not be charged, the officer reported. The news of the incident was put on a police blotter posted to their Facebook, listed around the 3:26 p.m. time stamp. The exorcism incident was surrounded by other, far more normal, police-related incidents, forcing readers to do a double-take. Over 200 comments below the post asked for more information.
"Can you elaborate a little more on the alleged exorcism in the lumber aisle?" one commenter asked. Another wrote, "Please, may I have a crumb of context and also the body cam footage of the Home Depot[?]"
"Sometimes I think the 2x4s in my garage are possessed," one commenter joked.
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PennLive reported there was no indication the incident was triggered by the skyrocketing lumber prices, although with the market crash and the exorcism, it's been a busy year in the lumber market media.
Similar to what was seen in the 2008-09 Recession, the COVID-19 pandemic and national shutdown forced the closure of many sawmills in the U.S.
John Bell, associate professor of supply chain management at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, told SupplyChainDive that there's been an "unprecedented shift in the housing market, trying to build these new homes. This is straight up economics. When demand and supply are imbalanced, price goes up."
NPR reported the futures price of lumber in March 2020 was $303.40 per thousand board feet. That cost hit a record high in just 14 months, reaching a cost of $1,607.50 this May.
Now, the price of lumber is coming back down as the economy begins to open up again, but experts are warning that prices still won't be as low as they were before the pandemic.
Perhaps more exorcisms will do the trick?
Newsweek reached out to Dickson City Police Department for additional comment but did not hear back in time for publication.
