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CaberTosser 11-07-2018 09:44 PM

Weird Stories from Work
 
An odd occurrence at work yesterday made me think that it might be fun to do a thread on weird things that have happened on the job that stand out from your usual work days.

Yesterday I got a panicked call from a neighbor two doors over who was noting that there was a major leak in their basement and that some horrible loud alien noise was happening, he also didn't know where his main water shut off was. He asked if I was home but I was not, though I headed over immediately from where I was as it sounded like it needed immediate attention. I got to his house and they noted that the odd noise had stopped. I went to their basement and they showed me the leak on the ceiling above their wet bar. There is no plumbing directly above the wet bar, neither water lines nor plumbing fixtures or even any drain pipes that would pass overhead. The leak on the ceiling had an odd pattern even, I noticed it was directly above the sink drain and the pattern on the ceiling matched the pattern of the sinks basket strainer... then I recalled the presence of the City of Calgary jetter truck down the block. When I left home 1/2 hour previous to my neighbor calling the city crew had just been hooking up the fire hydrant at the intersection to refill their truck, I had to drive around them in the oncoming lane just to exit our street. The crew had jetted the sewer main of our cul-de-sac but I know that the catch basin at that manhole out front also leads straight into my neighbors house as I had that open this year when clearing his plugged main, the issue was the city jetting his sewer contents back onto his basement ceiling! I spoke with the crew who were still right across the street to confirm/notify them of what had occurred. They apologized and noted to call 311 for a clean-up crew.

This was icing on the cake for this neighbor, this year they have had a foundation leak that caused basement damage that was subsequently repaired. Right as that interior finishing crew completed their repairs his main sewer backed up and then I was over there to clear that. Three weeks ago I removed an American dime that was jamming his garburetor, then this past Sunday his furnace needed repair and I fixed that. And then this! I'm also missing about 2 things that weren't plumbing related, but he's had quite a year over there.

Please share your most memorable work days, the weirder the better!

ksteed17 11-07-2018 09:52 PM

A few years ago we were doing a renovation and the customer wanted us to see if we could move some duct work to install some new plumbing. At the time I was working for my father in law, there was a hole in the duct and he reached in to see if he could reach the end of it and said hey there’s something in here. He pulls it out and it’s a big ‘Ol d ildo! My father in law is very nieve and he’s holding this thing shaking it at me saying “what the heck is this thing?” I was crying tears of laughter as the customer was crying tears of embarrassment. That’s a day I’ll never forget.

CaberTosser 11-07-2018 10:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ksteed17 (Post 3868123)
A few years ago we were doing a renovation and the customer wanted us to see if we could move some duct work to install some new plumbing. At the time I was working for my father in law, there was a hole in the duct and he reached in to see if he could reach the end of it and said hey there’s something in here. He pulls it out and it’s a big ‘Ol d ildo! My father in law is very nieve and he’s holding this thing shaking it at me saying “what the heck is this thing?” I was crying tears of laughter as the customer was crying tears of embarrassment. That’s a day I’ll never forget.

I saw something just like that in an apartment where the landlord had to meet me for access. Apparently the tenants didn't clue in the fact that a heating service tech needs to check adjacent the perimeter baseboard heating to find where their zone valve is located...

An old co-worker had a call where the issue was a plugged main sewer and it was determined that a bed in the basement would need to be moved to access the main clean-out. The bed was a tenants as the customer rented out her basement suite. The tenant was not there but the little old lady got quite a shock as she saw the fellows extensive porn magazine collection get uncovered when the bed was moved :sHa_sarcasticlol:

Hawkeye 11-07-2018 11:02 PM

A veterinarian was examining a mare that had been brought in to the clinic as she had some sort of problem (been too long and I have forgotten that detail). A complete physical exam in a mare usually includes putting on a plastic sleeve and doing a rectal examination. The fellow felt something round and firm in the vagina, just behind the cervix. He put mild downward pressure on it and drew his hand back; the object moved towards the back end of the horse. He was very surprised when a raw onion popped out of the backside of the mare! Apparently, there is some sort of old wives tail about placing an onion in a mare's vagina as a means of treating some condition!!

True story from a long time ago!

TreeGuy 11-08-2018 12:27 AM

I once rolled into a pruning job in Silver Springs.

The homeowners were insistent on having everything cut back such that it did not overhang the neighbour's property regardless of how bad the trees would of looked. Apparently the guy was a bit of a kook. In fact, they seemed fairly nervous about it. They even warned me not to speak with him and promptly scurried inside the house.

Now, after a lot of years in the industry, conflicts along property lines were a very common occurrence that I had become fairly good at solving. Thus I wasn't particularly concerned.

Once off the ground, I got a clear view through the neighbour's kitchen window and things became clear...

The entire room and counter space was filled to about a depth of 4' with empty 4 liter milk jugs. The door to the basement was also full. The living room was also the same. Literally thousands. Thankfully he wasn't home!:scared0015:

We finished that job in record time. :scared0018:

CaberTosser 11-09-2018 08:35 AM

In the 1990’s I had a service call at an ‘old-money’ home in the Mount Royal neighbourhood, the client was a very old woman. To conduct my repair I needed the water shut off to the house and in the unfinished basement I could trace the old galvanized steel water line back to a small room best described as a pantry or a closet of some form, it was only about 36” x 48”. The door was locked though so I had to ask the client for access. The woman went into a panic upon my request and in no way, shape or form did she want to let me in that tiny little closet to shut off the water. I had to verbally describe to her how to close the valve from outside the house, she didn’t even want me inside the home when she made access to that room! At least the arthritic old girl managed to get the water shut off. To this day I wonder what was in there, was it shelves full of cash? Her deceased husbands remains?

Another regular client in an old Mt Royal home had an interesting backstory. She was as old as the hills and I noticed her name in an article in the Herald after she had passed away (I just looked her up and apparently she was not as old as I thought when she passed, I guess her dementia and my relative youth at the time made her seem a decade or two older than she was). The article noted that she grew up as a wealthy socialite in New York City and her father was a trusted friend of Czar Nicholas of Russia, he must have been a rather close friend as the Czar had gifted him one of those famous Faberge jewelled eggs that are worth so much money these days. I just looked up her name and found some reference that noted rather than the Czar giving her father this priceless jewelled egg it was instead Prince Edward (King Edward VIII). Either way she was supposed to have possessed one of these priceless works of art and her daughter figured that a charlatan who befriended her had absconded with the thing, the persons identity was known but proving anything seemed problematic.

If it was a gift from King Edward one wonders what happened in Windsor Castle, first world royalty problems and all. King: “Dearest, it’s my friends birthday and I haven’t had a chance to shop for a gift” Queen: “Grab that Faberge Egg off the mantle, it doesn’t match my color scheme in that room anyways. I never liked that pesky thing”

longshot270 11-09-2018 09:05 AM

Working in the patch at a plant beside the north sask river and on Boxing Day close to 20 years ago I got a visitor. Just after midnight a guy shows up at my plant and says he got stuck and needs a pull. I ask where abouts. He starts explaining and I’m confused and he gives me more weird details. I radio another guy to come over as I let my overactive imagination get the best of me and figure I’m going to get mugged at work. We go down a small backroad and he says we just passed where his car is stuck. It’s a real head scratcher at this point as we never seen it on the road. Turn around and there it is stuck in the middle of a small creek. We start asking more questions and piece it all together. This guy was headed back to a nearby town and thought he could take a shortcut through the country to get there. He turned down a road he thought he needed to use and came to a field(in his words). He drove down the field until he came to the road we was on now. Problem was he turned before the bridge and never crossed the river which he needed to do to get back to his town. So what he actually did was go down an old back road to an even older ferry crossing. Due to lack of snow that year he managed to drive right onto the north sask river. He then drove approximately a mile and a half down the river, past our plant until he seen a creek and turned up it and drove until he fell through the flood ice. We pulled out his vehicle, he said thanks, and took off. He was driving an 80’s Camero with bald tires. The tracks the next day on the river were priceless.

Ken07AOVette 11-09-2018 09:15 AM

I was doing Repo's for Chrysler credit back in the day, all of 19 years old in Lloydminster, which was pretty rough in the 80's. I got the paperwork and headed to the Debtor's house, was told to be careful, he may be armed. I thought they were kidding, but was apprehensive.
When I got there, I met the guy at the door, told him in no uncertain terms that I was taking his van, and he didn't want to start anything with me. Me being a big tough (to me in the mirror anyway) 6'6 19 year old, him a scary rough looking 40 year old from North of Lloydminster, getting the picture?
We chatted for a bit, and he said I could take it if I helped him unload the van for him. I agreed, and helped haul I can't even remember how many rifles and shotguns into the house. They weren't kidding he was armed. :scared0018:
The next day I got paperwork to go repo a car. The address was very familiar.
After a little chat I helped the same guy remove all the same firearms from the trunk of his car. We got along fairly well all things considered, but I was sure glad he only had 2 vehicles. I never saw him again.

CaberTosser 11-09-2018 09:26 AM

I missed my window to add an edit to the old lady with dementia and a Faberge egg, a co-worker was at her home once and due to her Alzheimer's she forgot he was there and dead-bolted him in the basement when she heard him down there. This was before the prevalence of cell phones so he could not contact anyone. She had called the fire dept about it so he did get out after a few hours. He wouldn't return there anymore, I took the calls at her place from then on but if I went into her basement I would remove the old fashioned barrel-bolt from the basement door first.

35 whelen 11-09-2018 09:41 AM

About 10 years ago I was working in Nisku in a shop with two brothers turned out they helped murder their grandfather with the grandmother and the mother one of the brothers went to jail as far as I know never heard what happened after that

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

nast70 11-09-2018 10:20 AM

I had a sales call at a clients home. I had worked for them in the past, and they were good friends with another good client. They needed a quote for a patio cover. The appointment was set a few days in advance, and since we set it they had been invited out for dinner. When I showed up she noted they were pressed for time and for me to get started and come inside the house (it started to rain) and finish up the quote.
After getting all the info I needed, I came in and started the quote at the kitchen island. The husband came home and we chated about the project etc. The wife came downstairs in nothing but a towel. She heard her husband, and being in a bit of a rush, she totally forgot I was in the house.
To her credit, she didn't skip a beat, business is business, and approved the quote. I don't know who was more red, me, her or her husband.

fishtank 11-09-2018 11:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaberTosser (Post 3868841)
I missed my window to add an edit to the old lady with dementia and a Faberge egg, a co-worker was at her home once and due to her Alzheimer's she forgot he was there and dead-bolted him in the basement when she heard him down there. This was before the prevalence of cell phones so he could not contact anyone. She had called the fire dept about it so he did get out after a few hours. He wouldn't return there anymore, I took the calls at her place from then on but if I went into her basement I would remove the old fashioned barrel-bolt from the basement door first.

funny i was just watching random video on youtube and came across the story about the 3rd imperial egg... some guy brought it for $15k thinking it was just a gold ball and its turn out to the worth $33 million:bad_boys_20:

Sasquatch9000 11-09-2018 01:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ksteed17 (Post 3868123)
A few years ago we were doing a renovation and the customer wanted us to see if we could move some duct work to install some new plumbing. At the time I was working for my father in law, there was a hole in the duct and he reached in to see if he could reach the end of it and said hey there’s something in here. He pulls it out and it’s a big ‘Ol d ildo! My father in law is very nieve and he’s holding this thing shaking it at me saying “what the heck is this thing?” I was crying tears of laughter as the customer was crying tears of embarrassment. That’s a day I’ll never forget.

lmao was she hot tho??

DisplacedCaper 11-09-2018 04:24 PM

I drove for Calgary Transit for 10 years. I so wanted to add a story to this thread but I really don’t know where to start...I do miss it though:)


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huntinstuff 11-09-2018 04:57 PM

We assisted on a search warrant one day on a meth lab.
I got my gear ready and realized that my best vantage point was a garage roof about 80m away.

So I knock at the door in my black uniform, Armalite 180 dangling across my chest, and this old lady answers.
“Maam, we have an issue with a place close by. May I please get up onto your garage so I can see better? She is agreeable.

I get up there and its near perfect. Bipod and rifle down, binocs out for a quick scout, then its all looking down the barrel time.

EMS shows. Hazmat shows. They park a couple blocks away but theyre close.

I see a Sgt with a guy in handcuffs in a yard 2 houses away. The Sgt looks at me and waves. I raise my left hand and this handcuffed guy starts screaming and crying. Im wondering what the issue is and i note my earpiece has pulled out of my radio. I plug in and get told that Sgt told this creep i was gonna nuke him if any firemen or EMS got hurt. :sHa_shakeshout: The guy was a bit high and tweaky.

I am concentrating on the target location but I hear something behind me and there stands the old lady, fully upright standing on the roof of the garage, holding a silver tray with tea and cookies for me. No idea how the hell she managed to get up there, let alone balance a tray with tea on it........but i couldnt engage with her in case something went down at the target address. I had to ignore her. So i radioed and one of my guys had a fireman help her down, tray and all.

She and I had tea and cookies afterwards. And i installed a motion light at her back door. Lol

Unregistered user 11-09-2018 04:59 PM

Young man ran into the shop 2 days ago, climbed onto the roof of a unit and asked for a lighter, he said he'd made some bad decisions and people were chasing him. He wanted his last cigarette before he grabbed the power line. Police talked him down and hopefully he will get the help he needs.

Dweb 11-09-2018 05:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unregistered user (Post 3869023)
Young man ran into the shop 2 days ago, climbed onto the roof of a unit and asked for a lighter, he said he'd made some bad decisions and people were chasing him. He wanted his last cigarette before he grabbed the power line. Police talked him down and hopefully he will get the help he needs.

Creative way to go on his part , thinking outside the box

Ken07AOVette 11-09-2018 05:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by huntinstuff (Post 3869019)
We assisted on a search warrant one day on a meth lab.
I got my gear ready and realized that my best vantage point was a garage roof about 80m away.

So I knock at the door in my black uniform, Armalite 180 dangling across my chest, and this old lady answers.
“Maam, we have an issue with a place close by. May I please get up onto your garage so I can see better? She is agreeable.

I get up there and its near perfect. Bipod and rifle down, binocs out for a quick scout, then its all looking down the barrel time.

EMS shows. Hazmat shows. They park a couple blocks away but theyre close.

I see a Sgt with a guy in handcuffs in a yard 2 houses away. The Sgt looks at me and waves. I raise my left hand and this handcuffed guy starts screaming and crying. Im wondering what the issue is and i note my earpiece has pulled out of my radio. I plug in and get told that Sgt told this creep i was gonna nuke him if any firemen or EMS got hurt. :sHa_shakeshout: The guy was a bit high and tweaky.

I am concentrating on the target location but I hear something behind me and there stands the old lady, fully upright standing on the roof of the garage, holding a silver tray with tea and cookies for me. No idea how the hell she managed to get up there, let alone balance a tray with tea on it........but i couldnt engage with her in case something went down at the target address. I had to ignore her. So i radioed and one of my guys had a fireman help her down, tray and all.

She and I had tea and cookies afterwards. And i installed a motion light at her back door. Lol

Just remember. First edition, first signed copy to me :)

dodger 11-09-2018 06:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 35 whelen (Post 3868850)
About 10 years ago I was working in Nisku in a shop with two brothers turned out they helped murder their grandfather with the grandmother and the mother one of the brothers went to jail as far as I know never heard what happened after that

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

How about this - I have a guy at work who’s 2 cousins murdered their grandfather with the grand............................

Yep!

Dodger.

CaberTosser 11-09-2018 07:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dodger (Post 3869062)
How about this - I have a guy at work who’s 2 cousins murdered their grandfather with the grand............................

Yep!

Dodger.

... theft auto game?

... piano?

35 whelen 11-09-2018 07:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dodger (Post 3869062)
How about this - I have a guy at work who’s 2 cousins murdered their grandfather with the grand............................

Yep!

Dodger.

Small world

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

dodger 11-09-2018 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 35 whelen (Post 3869083)
Small world

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

Yep crazy.

Dodger.

SamSteele 11-09-2018 08:40 PM

In my youth I worked security at the Red Deer hospital for a bit. I was pretty new to the job and one night I was called upon to escort a patient up to the psych ward. We started walking down the empty hallway from ER to the elevators when this patient (who was 6’ 6” and north of 300 lbs) looked at me (all of 5’ 11” and under 180 at the time) and said “So if I started something do you think you could take me down?” My reply was “Probably not, so let’s not bother trying”. He chuckled and off we went to the ward.

Fifth Wheel 11-10-2018 12:40 AM

One of my first jobs was printing court transcripts overnight. The company with the contract was located on the main floor of an old 3-story wood frame building slated for demolition. The upper stories contained vacant walk-up apartments with outside access from the rear parking lot.

My overnight workspace was the rearmost apartment on the second floor and about one week into the job, I was busy running an offset printer and collating machine with good old '70s rock music blaring from a ghetto blaster to offset the noise levels from the machines. Every window was open, as was the hallway door due to the July heat (Winnipeg), and I turned from my work to see an old lady dressing in a long flowing nightgown standing in the doorway looking angry and just staring at me.

I nearly had a heart attack, then stopped all the noise to ask her what she wanted. She never spoke, just departed down the hallway. The door remained closed for the rest of the shift and I asked my supervisor about it in the morning. It turned out that she had been given notice to vacate but refused to leave. He said to ignore her and make all the noise I wanted to. ("Thanks for telling me beforehand!")

Anyway, I never had the heart to make more noise that I had to and kept the hallway door closed. She probably lived there a very long time and I felt sorry for her being evicted in the name of progress. I never saw her again.

Fifth Wheel 11-10-2018 01:27 AM

As a line-haul trucker in the '80s, I was running TransCanada Highway 17 at night east of the Soo. The weather got progressively worse with a lake-effect winter storm rolling in when a 4-wheeler caught up to me on a grade. He didn't see the need to dim the high beams. (I assume a lot of drivers think the big trailers block all the bright lights).

I made every attempt to assist and encourage him to pass -- including slowing several klicks below the limit on the passing lanes -- but there he stayed, glued to my trailer, much too close and much too bright. After about an hour, we finally reached a 24 hour truck stop (Nairn Centre, by my recollection) and when he followed me into the parking lot, I was ready to get out and include his headlights in my tire check (thump-thump).

After taking care of business, I was relaxing with a coffee when a pleasant man approached my table and asked if I was the the driver of the truck in the lot, which he described. I answered affirmatively and he proceeded to thank me profusely for guiding him through the storm and getting him to a safe place. He was an American business traveler on a road he'd never seen in conditions he was not accustomed to. He even insisted on buying my coffee. I was humbled and the anger vanished.

Life has many unexpected surprises from which we can learn a lot from people with a different point of view.

Rastus 11-10-2018 05:59 AM

I was driving a rig for, and I saw this skunk starting to cross the road. I missed him with the tractor but the trailer got him and the trailer was MT. So I proceeded to my drop off point and backed it into a dock. Well the dispatcher said I had to park it in the compound and I INSISTED that now it was in the dock that it should stay. He finally agree with me, I got my papers and was headed out of the office when a worker lifted the door. I will not tell you what he said because it is UNPRINTEDABLE here.

Ron J 11-13-2018 10:54 AM

Work stories
 
When West Edmonton Mall first opened in the early 80's we would often get dispatched to stolen auto complaints from people who forgot which part of that mammoth parking lot they left their vehicle in. I had one such woman in my patrol car and was doing a grid search looking for her car. I asked if there was anything distinctive about her car, and was told no, it was just a green Toyota. We found the car after about half an hour, but probably would have found it sooner if she had mentioned the canoe tied to the roof.

.257Weatherby 11-13-2018 06:26 PM

We had a vehicle fire at work ten days ago or so.
V-Dubb Vanagon was having issues to stay running.
Stalled a couple of times.
turns out it was a fuel issue and leaking fuel no less.
Drove up the ramp and got to about 0 feet from the deck of the ship before it burst into flames.
A five pound Co2 f/e did nothing and the ships crew didnt connect enough hose right away.
The driver didnt believe her V-Dubb was burning till the smoke started to fill the cab.
Fire Rescue arrived in about 7 minutes from the 9-11 call and by that time the ships Fire Party had enough hose strung out and geared up that all Delta did was use the thermal imaging to confirm the fire was out.
Ship was 40 minutes late on departure, but they got a pretty good show .
Stay Safe everyone,
Rob

Rastus 11-14-2018 06:29 AM

Another time, I was driving across this bridge, with an MT trailer, and I am in my own little world, it was about 3:00 am. And I look and see the name of the company I was working for on the side of the trailer, never thought about it until I was near the top of the bridge, the bridge was about a mile long, and then it dawned on me, why was I reading the company I worked for in the mirror. It was because the wind had come up and was blowing my trailer sideways. They were closing the bridge behind me and I was the last truck driver across. I found out that they regularely closed the bridge when the wind gets to high.

brightons 11-15-2018 03:43 AM

My son works at a coffee shop. He's always got these crazy stories of people coming in and putting in these really wierd long, overly-specific drink orders: "I want a half-caff, half-decaff, double mocha espresso with half regular and half soy milk, and I want the temperature to be 147 degrees."


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