A motorist retrieved this “big box of blood” from the middle of a Madison street on Sunday. Credit: Madison police

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The incident Sunday afternoon on Zeier Road in Madison could have gotten bloody fast.

Instead, thanks to a quick-thinking motorist, a misplaced box of donated human blood was retrieved from the middle of the street and eventually returned to the American Red Cross.

"The good news is it was not struck by a car or truck, and was undamaged: good to go," Madison police said in their online incident report.

The driver, a 68-year-old Stoughton man, spotted the large box in the street near the East Towne Mall around 2:30 p.m. Sunday. He stopped and got out to inspect it and found the words "HUMAN BLOOD" on the box.

The man put the box in his trunk and quickly flagged down an officer, yelling that he had just found a "big box of blood, human blood," the incident report said.

On closer inspection they saw the box belonged to the Red Cross, which asked that it be brought to its Sheboygan Ave. location.

How did the box end up in the street? A lab technician told police that a volunteer who was transporting six boxes from a satellite location likely left one of the boxes on a car, and it ended up in the street.

But ultimately, no harm done. Police notified the driver that "his potentially life-saving find had arrived 'safely' at the Red Cross."