Roomba escapes St. Clair Shores nail salon

St. Clair Shores business owner Jenny Nguyen was not thinking about anything but enjoying some fresh air Monday, April 3 when she propped open the front door of her A.J. Nails & Spa business in the 9-Mack business district.

A little later that afternoon, she realized her Roomba autonomous robotic vacuum had exited the building and was nowhere to be found in the immediate area.

"We opened the door and I realized later the vacuum was missing," said Nguyen. "I thought it must have just gone out the front door."

Nguyen's friend Lynsie Melton posted about the escaped vacuum on Facebook and asked St. Clair Shores residents to be on the lookout for the round, white Roomba in the area near Mack Avenue and Nine Mile Road.

Early that evening, a resident noticed the vacuum near 9 Mack Drive and Doremus Street. She had seen the Facebook post and returned it to the front of A.J. Nails & Spa even though it was closed at the time.

The little wandering Roomba was taken to Melton's home where it dried out from being outdoors in the rain.

"Hopefully it will be OK and the story has a happy ending," said Nguyen.

Melton said at first, she was not sure the vacuum was in working order and it did require a little bit of maintenance to get it functioning at full capacity.

"It was covered in dirt with wood chips and twigs falling out of it so I towel dried it, and left it in my basement overnight with two dehumidifiers." said Melton. "At first it was spitting dirt and wood chips everywhere so it had to be cleaned out and then it was good as new!"

Melton reports when she went to her appointment at the nail salon on Tuesday, the Roomba was on duty performing cleaning duties as usual.

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