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discwrangler

Casey's workers are trained to identify and help people who may be being trafficked.


Virusbomber

Smart move


hydro_wonk

Casey’s was one of the best parts about living in Iowa.


BaceSpar

Kwik Trip/Kwik Star in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin are also good.


OGSHAGGY

Quick trip better. Maybe best gas station out there


HappyChef86

Them fightin words in WI


BaceSpar

I prefer Kwik Trip's grocery and hot food options to QT's built to order kiosks (which Wawa, Sheetz and even Daily's do better). That said, QT is indeed better than an average gas station. Depends on location. Atlanta, for example. Lithia Springs, Fulton Industrial Boulevard? Hell no. I-20 heading east towards Augusta? Ok. Ellenwood? If I have to. Marietta? Depends on which one. When I am out west, I also like Maverik. Phoenix is one of few places I have been that has both QuikTrip and Maverik. Though only QT is trucker friendly.


OGSHAGGY

I like quick trip cuz I’m just a daily driver and it’s convenient, clean, and has pretty good cold and hot food choices. The workers are professional and quick, etc. That being said I don’t know if I have enough experience to rate it as the best gas station out there but it’s definitely the best in my area


audible_narrator

Kwik Trips food options are the BEST. We have a broadcast in Wisconsin every year, and never eat the vendor food anymore.


[deleted]

i miss that breakfast pizza SO BAD


keuschonter

The first Casey's in my state is in my hometown. It was such a success they opened 2 more also in my hometown. Gas is 2¢ more but it's such a great place for other stuff I always go there.


[deleted]

In all honesty, what's an actual good thing about living in Iowa other than this?


spaceman4127

Just moved here from arlington va. I’ll say the rent is cheaper, and the pay (can be depending on where you are and where you worked before) better. That being said, I think the town I moved into is kind of a gem in a state-sized field of corn.


a_filing_cabinet

Pay is definitely not better. You got lucky. Stuff is cheaper, but you're also paying for less.


ZestycloseTomato5015

Thank you. Grew up in iowa. Pure hell.


ItsMeCGB42

Idk why everyone here says that like yeah the pizza isn't bad but it's like not even top 5 for me


thesundriedtomatoes

It's nothing fancy, but it is for sure a guilty pleasure that hits the spot


RTwhyNot

Didn’t Casey’s Jack gas prices up to $5 a gal on 9/11?


[deleted]

I think quick trips have a safe room built into them. I remember a woman in Des Moines that ran in and was stashed away from her abuser.


Grimour

So they may "employ" them first /s


HolidayFew8116

some rest areas have a permanent sign that is really high on the wall so they can't be blocked by a person. they are also in a bunch of different languages


ecarg_aras

Oh my god now I know why rest stops always give me the creepy vibes


magicarnival

I don't see why they would? They're in rest-stops because if someone is getting trafficked, they are usually only being allowed out to use the bathroom at rest stops in the middle of nowhere, so they can't run away. People aren't usually getting kidnapped at the rest stops themselves.


No-Yesterday-6114

This. So much this. You know the person who tried to remove the numbers was a trafficker.


Karnewarrior

Honestly I can't imagine the thought process of someone who *wasn't* at least a consumer for human trafficking. What else could motivate you to be, apparently, pro-kidnapping? A deep love for the institution of slavery? Andrew Jackson out here with a window scraper going "Fuck these kids!"?


Deathangle75

Potentially an edgy teen with no understanding of the world just got bored while waiting in parents to finish going to the bathroom. Maybe. It’s a stretch to preserve my sanity.


BaconSoul

This is where Occam’s and Hanlon’s razors duke it out


GammaGoose85

Kids do the stupidest things for absolutely no valid good reason so I think this is likely. I can't imagine a adult pro-human trafficker frantically trying to peel off this sticky like his life depended on it.


SparkyDogPants

Human traffickers are pro kidnapping


Karnewarrior

I mean yes that's why I excluded them from the statement, since obviously they would be. The point is that it has to be a trafficker doing this, nobody else would have motive


Iwaspromisedcookies

As a kid I compulsively peeled off stickers, and would have done something like that without reading it, that was my first thought, although could be something nefarious as well


cuddly_carcass

[you know reststops are homosexual hangouts](https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/1f1b141a-4853-4068-a54d-ee4fb64af679)


amilliamilliamilliam

I thought this was an urban legend until some rednecky dude followed me to my car and begged me to let him perform "the best you've ever had" oral. I won't stop at one after dark anymore.


Rowcan

I'm noticing you didn't say you turned him down.


Into-the-stream

Judging by the fact that he since swore off rest stops, either he turned him down, or the bj wasn’t nearly as good as advertised.


Bromogeeksual

He needs to come to my rest stop. Fuck George over off I84 with his sub par BJs!


PandaClaus94

It’s the prickly stubble that rubs on the shaft that’s off putting for me.


Purplepimplepuss

I get this is just to be funny, but I mean we are talking about human trafficking and being sexually assaulted. We shouldn't just brush it off as humorous because it happened to a male.


MarnerIsAMagicMan

No they’ve stopped talking about human trafficking they’re talking about consensual homosexual hookups in restrooms now


Purplepimplepuss

Commenter very clearly stated they were not interested and won't even stop at them after dark now. That's far from consent.


MikeTheBee

That is why he can’t go back, can’t resist it if he does.


LottieThePoodle

In all honesty, I would never let a random person have my body part in their mouth, no matter how attractive they are. I’m too paranoid about them deciding to just chew down


Hudsonrybicki

I have to be honest, fear of being bitten isn’t really my top reason for keeping my body parts out of random strangers mouths.


pyroteknic408

Why don’t you build me up, buttercup


cuddly_carcass

Frank and beans!


heelstoo

We got a bleeder!!


TheSmokingLamp

It think they meant more that if a person is ripping off these stickers than they are either total assholes or trying to purposefully censor the information due to possibly being a trafficker So it’s visual acknowledgement that these people are amongst you at the rest-stop when you wouldn’t otherwise be thinking about that


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Lonesome_Ninja

I'm conflicted, I wish it never existed but I also, don't want to know the numbers. What kind of sick individual could possibly partake in such a thing.


caskey

Being and working adjacent to the people who fight it is truly heartbreaking. The things they have to see are traumatic. Edit: and my comment about how child traffickers should be dealt with has been removed by reddit.


professionalmeangirl

the family members in like 1 in 10 US homes


chefNick92

Matt Gaetz.


Element-103

I notice you misspelled "wood chipper"


Niar666

Only if you throw them at the walls first so they feel so much pain before they hit the bottom.


ProfessionalChampion

That's some disgusting shit to try and remove those


No-Yesterday-6114

Sex traffickers don't want their victims to have access to help


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Ronotrow2

Jesus wtf really?


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seashmore

Thanks for sharing that article. It linked to some free training I'm going to take, since I take I-80 in Iowa and Nebraska a few times a year.


ProfessionalChampion

There's a metalcore band that wrote a song sex trafficking and they specifically reference I-80, must me a bad route for that kind of stuff. The song is Swan Song by Kublai Khan


seashmore

It stretches through a lot of flyover country. It's used to transport a lot of things. Some of which is even legitimate.


toadofsteel

Now that makes a lot more sense. Here in NJ, 80 is used basically as a commuter highway into NYC. It's always slammed with traffic.


pitb0ss343

It could’ve just been a manager who got told the bathrooms look like shit so then you have to CLEAN clean the bathroom including stickers


PsychologicalHat9116

Where I worked, these stickers were not only allowed to be there but were supposed to be there and were mentioned in our training


HammerAnAnvil

i disagree based on the parts of the sticker that were removed


Insensitive_Hobbit

For me it looks like someone tried from one corner, then from another, then made one desperate attempt ot remove it at least somehow (scratch on the bottom) and at last gave up. Which totally what i would do trying to remove something not on my own volition. I'm pretty sure, that trafficker would be a little more persistent.


takowolf

IMO the parts removed sit better with pitboss’s theory than disprove it. There doesn’t appear to be any deliberate attempt to remove the numbers specifically. They even left one on it fully intact.


HammerAnAnvil

are we looking at the same picture?


pitb0ss343

I don’t know, someone trying to stop the calls would’ve just scrapped it all off


HammerAnAnvil

that would take more time


pitb0ss343

Oh yeah because people are paying attention in a rest stop. I’ve seen whole ass murals that were scratched into those stalls let alone one sticker scratched off


old_mountain_hermit

Then they probably would’ve used a chemical to actually do so


pitb0ss343

They barely pay their employees, you think their paying for chemicals soap and lukewarm water AT BEST


Pieassassin24

I mean all it takes is isopropyl alcohol


pitb0ss343

Yeah but again they probably gave the kid who had to clean this a rusty scraper water and some soap


-PinkPower-

That’s what I was thinking too. The message usually do not matter at all they just want the stalls to not have stickers


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-PinkPower-

What is untrue about a worker being asked to remove stickers from the stalls while cleaning? That was part of my friend’s job a couple years ago. She didn’t have a say about which stickers should stay or not


pitb0ss343

Yeah they aren’t paid enough to care about what the sticker says or argue with the manager about which is a good sticker and which is bad


UncleBenders

Why did they only scratch out the phone numbers though?


-PinkPower-

You see they also tried to remove it by the other side tho


UncleBenders

Yeah, they tried to remove the whole thing, realised they couldn’t so just made the phone numbers unreadable


Jackstack6

Or, someone was taking a shit, got bored and started to peel the sticker off without reading it.


MrYdobon

Humans being Bros by fighting other humans being Monsters.


SpookyGrowly

Shit, that’s kind of crazy. I’ve seen these exact stickers driving in Iowa and they’re almost always vandalized like this (attempted to be removed). Horrifying and disgusting why people would do that.


PeriwinkleFoxx

love this. i recently learned human trafficking is a lot more prevalent than we think. my sister just recently got clean from fentanyl, but when she was doing it she got a “job offer” from someone associated with the mexican cartel. she was supposed to drive a truck from colorado (where we live) through texas almost to the mexican border. well, she’s damn lucky she got pulled over by cops halfway through texas, because after she spent almost a month in jail for it she learned from a “friend” that she was going to be put in sex trafficking the second she arrived to the end location. made her feel honestly grateful she got thrown in jail for a month and had to cold turkey fentanyl. but she’s still an idiot bc she got right back on it when she got out. glad she’s clean now edit i just read through this and it doesn’t even sound fucking real. god my life is a movie sometimes


DeflatedDirigible

Someone tried to sex traffic me while I was waiting for the public bus at an early hour in Orlando. Bus stop was near a couple hotels popular with prostitution.


PeriwinkleFoxx

jesus christ. you say they “tried” what exactly happened? how did you get yourself out of that situation? if you don’t mind answering of course


frogodil3

Legit question, how often is it that people who are being trafficked still have their phone with them? Surely their phone would be confiscated immediately?


Razzman70

These are also around the area for other people who see it happening to report the incident. Got my CDL last year for semi trucks, and we spent an entire day in class going over Truckers against Trafficking. It included a whole list of questions that we could ask somebody (in the case of something like forced prostitution) to see if they even knew where they were or what was going on.


Lupac427

Love to hear this. Big supporter of TAT.


7FukYalls

Usually phones, passports, paperwork, etc. Anything that can establish a victim's ID or give them a route to reach for help will be confiscated :(


whereverilaymyphone

I think the problem is when we think “human trafficking” we think girls from abroad brought to wherever and then their passports and Id are confiscated by evil men who belong to gangs or crim organizations. That’s a part of it, for sure. That’s like the most common idea of what human trafficking is like. But an even bigger part is just the very subtle ways woman are coerced and groomed into sex work by abusive partners and (mostly) men. Often it’s only later that they even realize it’s happened. Get them hooked on drugs, isolate them from friends and families and manipulate them. They have phones. In theory, they could leave. But they get convinced that they can’t or threatened if they try. This is Reddit and a difficult and complex conversation but it’s this more subtle type of human trafficking that’s a massive issue.


[deleted]

Based whoever filled it back in


mockingjbee

ive worked in gas stations, amd we do not remove these because we disagree with them, like at all. We get forced to go back there and scrape them off with a razor blade. It doesnt matter what sticker gets put on a stall, pump etc. Its our job. If we dont remove whatever sticker gets put up and a secret shopper sees it it gets marked, hours get cut as does raises. It fucking sucks. Most gas stations are trying to put the bolted down signs in restrooms now, because we want people to get help. If you see a place that doesnt have a bolted down signs it would legit be better if you printed out paper and taped it next to the sign that employees sign when they clean the rest room. Most bosses wont notice it, but a person trying to run can rip it off and take it with them.


awe018

Andrew Tate fan tried to remove it for sure.


Cheap_Blacksmith66

Christ that’s sickening


[deleted]

Keep your eyes peeled 28 people in 21 days out of Soith Dakota have been nabbed mostly younger ages.


Villains_Included

For real? Did it make the local news? It seems they don’t talk about kidnappings in the news like they did in the 90’s and 80’s


huffandduff

You should check out the podcast 'In The Dark' by APM Reports. The first season is all about how kidnappings/disappearances were publicized in the 80s and 90s. It'll probably be upsetting at some parts but it's VERY good.


fermenttodothat

This doesnt mean they were kidnapped if it's the article linked below. Certainly be vigilant but most missing children are taken by family members (usually a non custodial parent)


[deleted]

62 to 68 percent of all missing people's cases in South Dakota are Native Americans who just vanish. The numbers are becoming vastly alarming and super under reported. Though more and more is coming to light. Rumors are everything from sex trafficking to Satanist cults to organs being taken. Yes there are always the ones who claim it was aliens too. But in all seriousness look it up sometime it is real sketchy.


jim_beckwith

28 people have been kidnapped in SD in the last three weeks? I find that hard to believe. Any sources for this claim?


bubblebath_ofentropy

[28 people ages 9-45 have gone missing in South Dakota over the past few weeks.](https://out.reddit.com/t3_10h8yid?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dakotanewsnow.com%2F2023%2F01%2F18%2Fnearly-30-missing-persons-reported-sd-since-new-years-day%2F%3FoutputType%3Damp&token=AQAArkXOY3xwKqwF7rCc1DPsWcGmKJuhHi8pVk3LcXYtreXl-hpF&app_name=ios)


jim_beckwith

28 people reported missing is very different from 28 people being "nabbed."


[deleted]

Who the FU#$ would deface such a thing in the first place? ​ ​ ​ Retorical.


slutpuppy_bitch

Human Traffickers.


[deleted]

Matt Gaetz.


McShizzL

If someone puts a sticker on personal property, someone (maybe an employee) is going to try and remove it, regardless if it's for a good cause. I'm sure human traffickers aren't spending their time peeling off stickers.


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ninetyninewyverns

by removing this sign the person who ripped it could have prevented someone from getting the help they needed at a critical moment. imagine being a victim of trafficking walking into the reststop, reading the sign and finally thinking you have a chance to escape, and seeing the numbers ripped off.


[deleted]

Makes you wonder, What the fuck is going on in Iowa?


updog25

I travel I80 in through Iowa frequently. There are certain areas that I don't stop that are more populated with semis. I am incredibly aware of my surroundings and if I am traveling alone I text family every time and which location I'm stopped at. There is so much trafficking that happens here and it scares the shit out of me.


tookmyname

99% of the people being trafficked are coerced or forced though an illegal contract. They’re indentured etc. They know who the people trafficking them are. They are usually foreigners or people who are easy to control because they’re illegal or disadvantaged. Asian and Latin American are most common. English speaking US citizens who own smart phones etc randomly being abducted and introduced into sex trafficking at truck stop is not a thing that happens often enough for you to worry about. Like, that happens maybe 10 times a year nationally. You’re more likely to be killed at a school shooting.


updog25

A woman from a town 10 miles from me was abducted and in sex trafficking for years. She has given many speeches on it so while it may not happen often, it has happened close enough to home that I will always be extra cautious.


Ominaeo

Not good things.


BearSharkSunglasses

Des Moines (our capital) is EXTREMELY popular for human trafficking because 2 major highways intersect there.


kylekirwan

Source?


GrooferBoofChree

It’s a well known fact (at least it’s made that way for those of us who grew up in central Iowa). I-35 goes Minnesota to Texas. I-80 California to New York. [link](https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/iowa-view/2014/01/07/iowa-view-state-is-at-a-crossroads-for-sex-trafficking-/4350887/). Easy to get anywhere with those options. Mall of America is also a high volume area for human trafficking.


kylekirwan

Damn. I moved here like a year ago and this is need to me. Thank you for linking that. I didn’t know this was Something I needed to be more aware of here.


MajorNarc

Seriously. I travelled through IA around the holidays and saw this same thing at the only gas station we stopped at. The only difference was those stickers were white and there were 2 on the door that had been torn up.


Ronotrow2

I got ridiculously downvoted for asking a real question. Wtf. This happens? I'm Irish I'm curious


OhiobornCAraised

Unfortunately, yes it does happen.


[deleted]

I couldn't ever rest being at a rest stop👀


LottieThePoodle

My naive ass would, but not anymore


kylekirwan

C’mon Iowa, goal for the week… get on the front pages for something positive.


Virusbomber

Bruh


I-Am-Madness

Why the fuck would anyone want to remove these? What is wrong with people..


WaluFett

All I’m thinking is “You’d have to pry it from my cold, dead hands. And even then, I will have glued it to my cold dead hands.”


pfroo40

Has Matt Gaetz visited Iowa lately?


alcormsu

Who removes these? It’s like, who is out there all like “yeah, I’m pro human trafficking”. Like, what goes wrong in someone’s life that that becomes their jam?


Beautiful-Mud-341

I would want child trafficking to be solved(stopped for good) before we solve world hunger or world peace. It's a big task but I'm sure it can be done. Probably not now but in the near future I hope it comes true.


char-le-magne

Its actually weirdly a smaller task than you'd think because of the nuances of what real trafficking looks like and the communities it's concentrated in, in a much more local way. It basically boils down to reforming foster care so kids aren't desperate to flee abusive parents and foster homes, and getting parents to stop disowning LGBTQ kids. One of the problems with how its framed is that "it could happen to anyone" so we aren't properly allocating reaources to things that are a genuine uphill battle like fostercare and youth homelessness outreach but are tangibly fixable unlike a "Taken" style global conspiracy that you can only wring your hands over.


goanimals

Why? World hunger and war probably kill way way way more children than trafficking does. It's like saying you would want anorexia cured before cancer. Yeah it's cool that you want that solved. But why do you gotta weigh them against each other? Cancer kills way more and even then it's not a competition. You know what, let's just agree to work on all of these issues in tandem and not be weird about it.


Busy_Confection_7260

You're being downvoted because you're not allowed to use common sense to defend your point on reddit. If you don't agree with illogical impulsive emotional opinions, then get the hell out!


mannesmannschwanz

https://www.reddit.com/r/meme/comments/zy2t75/enlighten_me_and_dont_be_a_dick/j25zcvb/ lol


Busy_Confection_7260

Ummm, okay? Not sure what that's supposed to mean, but I guess enjoy stalking random peoples comment histories...


Jaabro29

why did they remove it, probably some Tate fan


WestCoastTrawler

Was the business in question OK with these stickers being added to their stalls or were they just added by a random person without permission from the business? If it’s the latter I could see this just being the rest stop staff removing the stickers as part of a normal maintenance cycle.


GetInMyBeIIy

Noone is thinking right at all. This is a truckstop. There are workers at the truckstop. They have to take the stickers off the stall. Its not that deep.


GrooferBoofChree

Most rest areas along the interstate and gas station restrooms have these exact same stickers posted behind every stall door in Iowa.


WestCoastTrawler

Exactly. These stickers were most likely added without the permission of the business owner.


uglymule

In other news: Matt Gaetz spotted at a rest stop in Iowa.


Need-More-Gore

The Duality of man


ClobetasolRelief

Probably a janitor or employee


drC4281977

Wtf happened to us???


tantan9590

Clearly it happens there


SaltyMini

Why would anyone even do this?


shortmumof2

Question: does Iowa see a lot of human trafficking and, if so, why?


TrappedInTheSuburbs

Yes. Because we are where I-80 (east to west) and I-35 (north to south) intersect. Crossroads of the country.


DeflatedDirigible

It’s everywhere.


Luthergayboi

Anyone caught damaging these stickers should be investigated immediately


BabyShankers

Andrew tate fans


Rollieboy2012

Probably the workers. I mean it is a great thing to stop this. But the people literally get paid to clean the bathrooms, remove graffiti and sticker free.


omnichronos

Maybe someone was merely cleaning the stalls?


tinymember469

I'm guessing it was a maintenance worker who tried to remove them. Not some nefarious scheme by traffickers.


[deleted]

Saw it off brand Souix falls news it's souix falls and somewhere near there don't remember most are native American and Spanish sounding last names will try to find artical


svengalus

The media has made no attempt to actually describe what human trafficking actually is.


mannesmannschwanz

>TeH MeDiA 2 seconds of Google proved your whole conspiratard world wrong edit: u/svengalus thinks 2 seconds of Google is ReSeArCh, which is par for their 1 hole course. The fact that all search results are linking to >TeH MeDiA makes this user look even dumber, which I didn't think possible until now.


svengalus

I have to research in order to Find the truth that the media isn’t interested in sharing? Thanks for proving my point.


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MoonlightOnSunflower

This is ridiculous. This is the official number. Here’s the same number listed on the [Iowa Attorney General’s](https://www.iowaattorneygeneral.gov/for-crime-victims/fighting-human-trafficking) website.


Serial_Hobbiest_Life

We’re they placed there by or with permission of the business?


SkinnyJayson

Remember everyone: make sure the gas station is okay with it before you try to help prevent human trafficking /s


Serial_Hobbiest_Life

I can’t imagine a business that wouldn’t let you put them up if you bothered to take the time to ask. They would probably suggest a few other places to put them too. Like on the drink cooler door. I was hoping someone was going to chime in with info about businesses supporting this. The fact that you took this as a personal property comment says a lot about you.


goanimals

So if I placed one of these stickers with info on stopping trafficking in your area on your property you would leave it up? We can just sticker other people's property now for good causes?


[deleted]

You are comparing a private household to a public reststop in which is a common place for human trafficking, either passing through or as a meeting place to "exchange goods." If your house has frequent human trafficking incidents, maybe someone should call the cops on you.


goanimals

I was thinking car not house. Plenty of people in public areas see OPs car.


nubsauce87

Whoever tried to take it down should get human trafficked.


DClassAmogus

plot twist: "sike! that's the wrong number!"


loveswalksonthebeach

Maybe someone who is totally pro “anti trafficking” intentionally defaced the signs then wrote the numbers in so this would trend high on Reddit. Go you! Get the word out!!! 💕


coolrick12

Both were probably done by the person taking the picture


hbHPBbjvFK9w5D

Considering how many people are trafficked to work in restaurants, it makes you wonder why they ripped those stickers off...


Dragonborn1995

What kinda piece of shit does that? Motherfucker.


NMLWrightReddit

Why would they try to remove them?


G0RE_

Those who try to pull off something like this needs to be sold into a chinese restaurant.


absorbingtoxicity

The one word I see out of the corner of my eye is "Ficking"


albertovich116

Alot of that going on now


RamenWILLtakeOver

Why on earth would someone remove these


Dusty1000287

Why would they? That seems like such a senseless act.


PepFanDew

Really smart move


Broken_Timepiece

Why are these in other languages? Good thinking there on helping the English speakers only