While everyone thought it was a placenta, it turned out to be the mother of all science class projects.

Shenango Township police were called at 10 a.m. Saturday to the Radisson Hotel to investigate something that had been found by an employee.

The employee was emptying a bucket that catches run-off from a soda pop machine. He dumped the contents into a sewer drain, and out plopped what looked like a placenta, Police Chief Ronald Preston said.

"When he drained the bucket, he almost passed out," Preston said.

The employee declined to comment this morning.

Preston said it looked like a placenta to him, complete with what appeared to be dried blood.

An emergency room doctor at UPMC Horizon, Farrell, even thought it was a placenta, Preston said.

But the employee who regularly deals with the pop run-off bucket cleared up the mystery this morning, Preston said.

The five-gallon bucket is emptied only every month or six weeks. A hose carries the run-off into the bucket, which is covered, so no one casually sees what's going on inside, he said.

What goes on inside would probably make a pretty neat science class experiment.

The sugar from the pop ferments on its way to becoming vinegar, Preston said.

"This thing looks exactly like a placenta," Preston said. "They refer it to as 'the mother,'" Preston said.

Preston said he will talk with Mercer County Coroner J. Bradley McGonigle III this morning about what to do with the item. He said he doubts that McGonigle will want to test it, based on what he found out this morning.

You can e-mail Herald Staff Writer Joe Pinchot at

jpinchot@sharon-herald.com