Actually Rob, you will see stuff like that in HL7 data all the time.

I've used the vertical tab for billions of rows over the years; it has never failed.

I use Jeff's method all the time in SSIS, except I use a vertical tab as the "unlikely" character.

REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(LTRIM(«Column»)," "," " + "\v"),"\v" + " ",""),"\v","")