A container of vomit was found on a shelf at an East Bluff quicky mart in Illinois.

The Peoria City/County Health Department noted in an Oct. 10 report, "A carton containing human vomit was stored on a crate by a display cooler."

Wil Hayes, the department’s director of environmental health, said, "We see all sorts of weird stuff. We haven’t run into vomit in a while."

Following his schnozz, the sanitarian spotted a plastic bucket filled with throw-up, near a cooler.

"It wasn’t in the kitchen area," Hayes said. "But that doesn’t make it any less disgusting."

The owner came in and said a child had vomited. The sanitarian wasn’t impressed by the explanation. He told the owner to remove the puke bucket.

But owner Joseph Sleh told me that he was a victim of circumstance and timing.

A kid had come into the business just before the sanItarian, then threw up on the floor, Sleh said. Sleh cleaned it up by scooping the vomit into a cardboard box, then put it down by the cooler.

Why not get rid of it? Why set it out inside the store?

"I was here by myself," Sleh said. "I couldn’t go take it outside (to the Dumpster)."

There’s no place else to throw it away, inside?

"No."

Years ago, at another business, the department found a similar situation: a container of vomit on a shelf.

"An employee had gotten sick the day before, and went home. Everyone thought he’d thrown it out before he left."