Item #: SCP-5675
Object Class: Safe
Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation garbage truck, similar to those involved in SCP-5675 events.
Special Containment Procedures: Though SCP-5675 events have ceased following the arrest of PoI-5675, the neighborhood is to remain under surveillance as a precautionary measure against similar phenomena.
PoI-5675 is currently incarcerated at a federal facility under UIU surveillance. Anomalous or otherwise suspicious activities are to be reported to the Foundation immediately under the Foundation and UIU's intelligence-sharing protocol.
Description: SCP-5675 is a phenomenon affecting residents of Chicago’s Douglas neighborhood. SCP-5675 presents as a cognitohazardous anomaly, through which individuals display adverse psychological responses to garbage collection vehicles operated by the Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation.
Symptoms of SCP-5675 include paranoia, anxiety attacks, and in several cases myoclonic seizures. In all occurrences of this phenomenon, the affected individual has reported an acrid smell not typically associated with refuse.
The first known incidence was on the morning of 2015/06/03, wherein approximately two hundred Douglas residents reported to local medical services and emergency rooms. SCP-5675 continued, with only the vehicles assigned to the weekly Douglas collection round triggering SCP-5675. Since Foundation observation began, an incident occurred once per week until 2015/11/08 (see Addendum-1). In all cases, an amnestic aerosol was dispersed over the neighborhood and its surrounding environs using an agricultural aircraft.
PoI-5675 is Robert Brigham Jr., a local resident with an interest in thaumaturgy and ritualistic practices. Brigham was first identified as a person of interest after triangulation of SCP-5675 events; the most severe symptoms had been seen in individuals near the apartment building where Brigham lived.
- Addendum-1: Investigation
The first SCP-5675 events began approximately one month after eleven year-old Grace Fontaine went missing from the city’s North Lawn area in May 2015. Her disappearance was ruled an abduction by the Federal Bureau of Investigations, though no suspects had been identified prior to PoI-5675’s arrest.
Statement given by Lena Fontaine at press conference the night following her niece’s disappearance:
I’ve got a few things to say to the city of Chicago tonight, on behalf of my sister Joan and her husband Markus. First, the whole family would like to thank everyone who gave their time — hours of their time — to help search for our Grace. Whatever the outcome, whatever lies ahead, we are indebted to your efforts.
Second thing, which should go without saying, is something that you’ve no doubt been hearing time and time again. However, I’d like to reiterate: if anyone knows anything, and I mean anything, that might help us in our search for Grace, do not hesitate to get in touch with the authorities.
Once again, we thank everybody who’s aided in the search so far. Be that combing the streets or sharing posts on social media, you’re real angels. I’m gonna hand back to the Commissioner right now. God bless. Let’s get our baby back.
The Foundation’s investigation into SCP-5675 drew the attention of the FBI’s Unusual Incidents Unit. The UIU was keen to establish whether Fontaine’s disappearance was linked to the emergence of SCP-5675 and took over the Fontaine investigation from the wider FBI. NOTE: Foundation reservations regarding intelligence sharing with the UIU are currently under review; it is possible that had information about SCP-5675 been passed to UIU contacts earlier on, a connection between SCP-5675 and the Fontaine investigation may have been identified sooner.
On 2015/11/08, the apartment of Robert Brigham Jr. was raided by MTF Iota-10 (“Damn Feds”) in conjunction with the UIU. MTF Eta-10 ("See No Evil") was also present, due to the potential risk of cognitohazardous phenomena.
Brigham was detained without incident and taken into joint Foundation/FBI custody. Investigators discovered, along with literature relating to various thaumaturgical practices, the polished skull of a young human female. Genetic analysis confirmed that it belonged to Grace Fontaine. A bag containing approximately one kilogram of biological matter was also recovered from the apartment’s refrigerator.
Following Brigham’s arrest, SCP-5675 events have ceased and the anomaly has been reclassified as Neutralized.
- Addendum-2: Interview Log
Interviewed: Robert Brigham Jr.
Interviewer: Agent Laura Dunnings, UIU
Foreword: Due to the discovery of Fontaine’s remains, the UIU wished to conduct an interview in accordance with Brigham having become an FBI homicide suspect. Two Foundation operatives were present during the interrogation.
<Begin Log>
Agent Dunnings: Mr Brigham?
Robert Brigham Jr.: Junior.
Agent Dunnings: So, Mr Brigham, to cut to the chase: We're almost certain you abducted Grace Fontaine.
Robert Brigham Jr.: Well I’m not gonna, like, deny it or anything; I mean, you found her skull sitting on my mantelpiece like it was granny’s fine china.
Agent Dunnings: I've only mentioned abduction. You do understand, Mr Brigham, that your statement constitutes a confession to murder?
Robert Brigham Jr.: I understand completely.
Agent Dunnings: And, while we're at it, you want to tell me why you kept the skull?
Robert Brigham Jr.: It's like a… like a trophy, I guess. A little something to remember my endeavour by. I polished her all clean - that's to buff the bad spirits right out, so they say.
Agent Dunnings: They?
Robert Brigham Jr.: Occultists. Magic people. They've got stories… bad things happening to people who abuse their guidance. Karma, you might call it. And I guess this is it.
Brigham gesticulates at the room.
Agent Dunnings: Just so we're clear — you're talking about the texts we found in your apartment, correct?
Robert Brigham Jr.: Ah, the spellbooks?
Agent Dunnings: Officially, we prefer the phrase “thaumic literature”. But go on.
Robert Brigham Jr.: Well, I’ve dabbled. Just another of my peculiar hobbies.
Agent Dunnings: You’ve dabbled?
Robert Brigham Jr.: I’m no wizard, ma’am. I couldn’t tell you any thermic… thermal… whatever you wanna call spells off the top of my head. Ain't no use without my books.
Agent Dunnings: When you say about people who "abuse" this… magic — were you engaging in thaumic practices when you murdered Grace Fontaine?
Robert Brigham Jr.: I might have… whispered a sweet something or two into her ear. Something to get her to calm down. She was scared shitless - kicking, screaming, all the way back from North Lawn in the back of my car. Screaming for someone to save her, to find her, "don't hurt me!" and all that-
Agent Dunnings: And did it work? The spell, or whatever you want to call it?
Robert Brigham Jr.: I mean, I told you I’m not a wizard. She quit squealing, yeah, but kept squirming. Like her mind was somewhere else. That’s why I had to… had to hit her with the…
Agent Dunnings: So that’s how she died? You hit her with… what, exactly?
Robert Brigham Jr.: A shovel, I think. Keep one in my truck in case of a Chicago winter. I weren't going to kill her right away. Might not have killed her at all, in fact, but desperate times call for desperate—
Agent Dunnings: So where’s the rest of her, then? What did you do with the body?
Robert Brigham Jr.: Between my little ornament and what your buddy pulled outta the fridge, you got her.
Agent Dunnings: No, the rest of her.
Robert Brigham Jr.: I broke her down. Teeny-tiny little pieces. I been putting bits of her out with my trash every garbage day. Good luck combing the landfills if you wanted to, like, stitch her back together or something.
Agent Dunnings: And you didn't think to… get rid of these so-called karmic spirits from what was left of the body?
Robert Brigham Jr.: Polishing bone's one thing, ma'am, but the best I could do with the other… stuff was dice her up and sneak her out. Thought it was done and dusted until you came knocking at my door. And, I'll tell you — if I'd not been brought in, I'd have done it all over again.
The room is silent for a moment while Agent Dunnings and the observing Foundation personnel take notes.
Agent Dunnings: Thank you, Mr Brigham. I think that’s enough for now, but I’ll be speaking to you again soon.
<End Log>
Closing Statement: Brigham was charged with the first-degree murder of Grace Fontaine. Occult literature recovered from Brigham's home corroborates the suggestion that an incantation was performed during Fontaine’s abduction with the intention of "calming" his target. Thaumaturgical experts believe that this particular incantation was capable of inducing a side effect not mentioned in the texts, in which the affected victim instead expresses fear and panic through the transmission of ontokinetic energy.