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Elevator Technicians Describe The Funniest Things They've Seen At The Bottom Of The Elevator Shaft

elevator interior
Derrick Treadwell /Unsplash

Ever wonder how often people have dropped their personal items through the gap between the elevator and the floor?

Ever wonder the kind of items that could be strewn at the bottom of an elevator shaft?

Wonder no more!

Elevator technicians share with us the things they've seen. Some of the things that forever became detached from their owners are unique, others are of the usual suspects, and others are just plain bonkers.

These are the things that were found when Redditor diegomkt asked:

"Elevator-maintenance folks, what is the weirdest thing you have found at the bottom of the elevator chamber?"

These are the shocking items.

Not Yolking

"Worked at a hotel. Guest dropped their phone down the shaft. After a few failed retrieval efforts, we called the elevator guys. They went down got the phone and also found a carton of eggs. Rotten, but not cracked. I don't even understand how that could happen accidentally."

– Hocktober

More Egg

"Did home repair to help put myself through college. Get a call that there's a non-waste water leak in an apartment in a second floor bathroom from a landlord, so me and my coworker go over. The water line on the toilet has a leak, enough has come out that we need to remove some of the ceiling in the living room to replace it. So we cut out a 4' x 4' area that meets a ceiling joist and we find an egg. One single egg balanced on the ceiling joist. We gingerly removed it and tossed it out. The ceiling had been closed up for at least the last 40 years. It was lathe and plaster, that old. That egg still haunts me."

– probablyapapa

Here, Kitty

"My dad was an elevator mechanic for about 15 years."

"He had a very dark sense of humour and would come home with some of the craziest stories. (For example, any time he was in an elevator, he would shake it a little or tap on the displays or buttons and go 'Yep. Total piece of crap. Inferior piece of crap.' and I think he mostly did it to freak people out.) One of my favourites:"

"He got a call that someone was hearing weird noises from the elevator. He got inside, rode the elevator up and sure enough, he could hear it too. For half a second he thought it was a baby crying and realized it was a cat. When he got to a certain floor, he could hear this sad meowing. It obviously wasn't in the elevator car, so he got into the shaft and found this little orange kitty! It had somehow (and I don't think he figured out or told us how) got into the elevator shaft and was sitting in a spot between the floors where it wouldn't get crushed by the elevator, but it couldn't get out."

"My dad saved it and gave it to the building manager to see if it belonged to anyone in the building."

"It was the one time he ever told us a story that involved him saving an animal instead of finding dead ones."

– aimeeerp

You might have expected these.

Late Reunion

"I once accidently lost my drivers license down the little gap in the elevator doors, just dropped it and was super unlucky as it slipped through. It turned up in my mail 10 years later! Obviously long expired, but still crazy some maintenance guy found it and bothered retuning it."

– Myjunkisonfire

Dropped Taxes

"Well over 1500 tax returns at the bottom of the ATO's north brisbane office elevator shaft."

– anon

The Magazines

"My dad has a great story about this. He supervised the mechanics, and one of them called him from a mental hospital and said 'you've got to see this'. The maintenance guy was called because the elevator wasn't quite sitting level on the ground floor; it was about half an inch too high and both patients and staff had been tripping on it. But all other floors were no problem."

"My dad arrived to find the maintenance guy cackling, looking into the bottom of the shaft. There were probably tens of thousands of magazines down there. They had to get a bunch of shovels, a small crew, and a rolling dumpster to clear it out. When it was all done, my dad decided to stay behind and pretend to read a newspaper while he sat in the lobby. After about half an hour, he sees an elderly patient holding a magazine, shuffling slowly toward the elevator. He stops in front of the doors, glances left, glances right, and quickly stoops down, slides the magazine into the gap, and shuffles away as fast as he can with a huge grin on his face. My dad could not help but laugh hysterically. This guy had probably been sliding magazines in there multiple times per day, every day, for decades. I should ask him whether he reported it or let the guy have his fun. Wouldn't surprise me if my dad went with the latter."

– nibiyabi

The Hotel Employee

"Not a technician, but do work at a large hotel. A few years ago one of our elevators stopped working. Turned out when they opened it up they found a 3-ft pile of guest folios that were never delivered to the rooms. Later when we looked on the camera we found it was a security guard that got tired of delivering them to the rooms and instead dropped them down the elevator shaft. He did this for months until he was caught."

– drdisney

These are the absolutely "nope" items.

Slither

"Pest control tech here, Snakes had gotten into the pit and were climbing up and dropping down on people as they rode the elevator. Good times.

– FeastofFamine

Getting Some

"Out team dropped a steel anal dialator down the dumbwaiter shaft by mistake. When the technician came down and grabbed it off the floor ill never forget the look on his face when I told him 'we need that up here it's got to go in someone's a** soon'... it was priceless (I am a technician for a hospital dealing with rectal surgical tools is very normal)"

– AmishApplesauce

Squat

"A couch. Not joking. It was a walk in pit that a homeless person had retrofit into a small living room."

Elema214

Luxury Apartments

"One time, we were doing a rip out at an old factory. They were gutting them and turning them into luxury apartments. The elevator we were taking out was an old freight that hadn't run in years. When we finally ran it up, we went down to inspect the pit. It smelled like a dead body had chilled there for half a century. The bottom floor wasn't lit so I shined my flashlight under the elevator and the whole floor started moving. Roaches. Nasty."

"Haven't really found anything fun though. I've cleaned out more pits than I could count too. I gave my mom a cheap ring I found. Found a pair of underwear at a hotel. Found a full packet at a courthouse of some lady's case transcribed. Oh, I was on a mod once and one of the hoistway doors had an advertisement sticker for a tennis restringing service. Which was weird because it was somewhere only an elevator guy should be able to reach. I called the number, but it was out of service. I've found some cool grafitti from the 40s. That's about it."

"I worked on escalators for a year and a half. There was a lot more in those pits. I was taking home bent up quarters every day. There was lots of shoe bits and I was always nervous of coming across used needles in certain units."

User Deleted

Arrest


"Worked security in a large department store, we routinely had to pop it open to retrieve dropped keys, wallets, and phones."

"Recovered a $2500 gold necklace covered in poop.. a would be shoplifter darted out of our jewelry department and “suitcased” the necklace while in the elevator. When he realized we were waiting for him at the exit level he went back up a floor, removed it, and dropped it down the shaft."

"We arrested him anyway, much to his surprise."

Sho0terman

So there you have it.

No reports of a missing body or anything gruesome involving a serial killer were recovered at the scene of these elevator shafts.

Still, you never know what lurks beneath your elevator. And if something alive is down there, hopefully it won't slither its way up to unsuspecting riders on their way to the work floor.

From Your Site Articles
workers

People Explain What Happened To The Popular Kids In School

Reddit user Just_Suspect5904 asked: 'People Explain What Happened To The Popular Kids After School Ended'

A cheerleader
Glib Albovsky/Unsplash

Being in high school is such a pivotal moment in a young adolescent's life.

They discover who they are and where they want to be. They start making tough decisions about their future and forge bonds with individuals who may continue to influence them as they navigate the world post-graduation.

But as it often happens, we all drift apart due to going to different colleges or embarking on other adventures.

It's not until several years pass that we wax nostalgic about our youth and wonder about the people with whom we once roamed the halls, carrying our textbooks and fixated on inconsequential matters that seemed like a big deal then.

Curious to hear from strangers online, Redditor Just_Suspect5904 asked:

"What happened to the most popular kids in your school?"

The following Redditors opened up about acquaintances that left an indelible mark on their memory.

The Parents Were Wrong About Him

"One of my best friends was from the wrong side of the tracks, poor, had a mullet and wore Metallica shirts way before they broke into mainstream."

"He was extremely popular because he was crazy smart, very talented and driven. Everyone wanted to be his friend and he was very open about being nice to everyone."

"Many many parents were like 'don’t hang out with that John Smith boy, he’s on drugs and a bad influence' (He absolutely was not, it was the Satanic scare of the late 80s and 90s and he liked Metal Music)"

"He worked his as off all his life and is now pretty damn wealthy with a house, wife and kids in California."

"When we chat it up on the phone he is the exact same person I grew up with. Crazy funny and extremely kind."

– Vitaminpartydrums

No Chance For Goodbyes

"Most popular kid in our school was a guy named Josh. Insanely outgoing and friendly, he could befriend anyone he talked to within five seconds, and always did. Active athlete, was on the football team. Straight A student. Very devout church-goer. I didn't meet him until later in high school, where he was part of a Dungeons and Dragons game I joined. Always put on a great time role playing. While we didn't get close, we had a couple extraordinarily memorable times during our senior year of high school, very fun and meaningful times that stood out strongly to me then during a shitty part of my life and are still remembered fondly by me twenty years later. Josh was going places, and he'd make a difference somewhere."

"We lost touch after high school. Three years later he fell asleep behind the wheel of his truck and hit a tree. Died on impact. Found out through another friend who'd kept up with him, and we went to his funeral. I'd never seen a church so packed full of people for something like this, hundreds and hundreds of people. From our school, from his church, from all over life, the church was legitimately full."

"To this day, one of my few true lifelong regrets is letting my anxiety get the better of me when Josh's pastor asked people to come up to the mic and say something about Josh. I should've told everyone of our ludicrous all-nighter digging his truck out of the mud in a forest he'd gone mudding in after an evening school performance where we were all still in khakis and polos, finishing at three AM and somehow ending our bedraggled a**es at IHOP after getting it out."

"I should've told everyone how we found out our DnD GM was moving away on short notice, and we high-tailed it to his place after school and literally ran out of gas in that f**king truck getting there, then flooded the engine refilling it from a Jerry can, stuck with our GM who didn't want anyone coming to say goodbye and ending up late in the evening laying in that truck bed talking about science and philosophy and religion, three teenage dudes waiting for that goddamn f'king truck to get to a drivable condition so we could say goodbye to our friend properly before he disappeared from our lives."

"I'm nearing forty, and I still regret not saying how great of a guy he was to a short, scrawny, long-haired metalhead weirdo like I was in high school. Because he was. He was going to make a difference. I suppose, given all the people at his funeral, he still did."

– token_bastard

Some failed to make much of an impression enough to stand out.

However, a discourse on cliques was started in the thread.

Unpopular Majority

"My HS graduating class was 952 people, I do not even know who the most popular people were, lol."

– CorruptDictator

"My class was about that size and I remember always thinking that many of the high school stereotypes you would see on TV and film didn't seem to apply at a school that huge. People who might have been the school bully in a smaller school are properly segregated, and people who might have been an outcast in a smaller school could always find a clique of similarly minded weirdos. Popularity was never a school-wide thing because the orchestra people, the jocks, and goths, the potheads, etc. all had their own separate leaders. Also as a result we would often have a lot of cross-clique friendships and mixed parties where most people tended to be generally cool with each other."

– soretti

The Thing About Bullies

"Apparently the cliques happen in medium size schools because my exceptional small school only ever had one kid that could represent each kind of classic clique. I think the school bully trope is strange because from my experience people are a d*ck to different people in different ways that might be considered bullying. Like orchestra kids might have been a group but perhaps there was a bully within that group that picked on other orchestra kids"

– Mediocre_Scott

New York City Does High School Different

"Same. it was 850 kids in my class. NYC. so no 'campus' just a single secure building (one of my schools was actually inside a sky scraper), kids didnt leave to get lunch (without cutting class), nobody drove and there was no parking lot to hang out in, there was no Football team, and just none of the tropes you see in the media. A lot of us worked after school. 80-something languages were spoken. everyone was from somewhere else, so there was no 'new kid in town' tropes. we didn't even have lockers!

"We also don't all go to our 'local'; schools, so the kids you went to school with in Elementary school are a different set of kids than from your Jr High, and are a different set of kids from your High School. And on top of that, you also had your own set of friends from your 'hood/block, so its not like you ALWAYS were with the same kids all the time all through childhood."

"Like on TV, the kids you are in class with, are also from your neighborhood and you hung out with them outside of school, and they were also the same kids you played on sports teams with. in my world, those were always different sets of kids."

"Extremely different from all the Suburban High School TV and Movie sh*t."

– super-antinatalist

People closely examined more about the differences between popular/unpopular demographics.

Privilege

"Small town."

"There are always exceptions, but most kids who were 'popular' were friendly, outgoing, well dressed, and emotionally stable. That happened because they came from families with more money and better educated parents."

"Those parents often provided better mentoring, ensured they went to college, and as a result the kids ended up professionals who did reasonably well for themselves."

– BeKindAndWorkHard

Assumptions

"This is a very unpopular and underreported reality, as the unpopular kids desperately want to believe the popular guys end up working at the local gas station or Walmart once their days as sports stars or heartthrobs are gone. While the nerds go on to become rich and successful exactly because of reasons that made them unpopular in school."

"Unfortunately for them, popularity is often based on social status and people skills. Two key assets in life at any age."

– Kalle_79

Study Shows

"I remember reading a study that says high school bullies were more likely to be successful than the average student from their class. Once again because outgoing people who are willing to have that aggressive personality are likely to be able to succeed more than a passive timid person. If that bully grows out of being a bully they're still going to have that outgoing aggressive personality."

– Tritium10

Misconception

"They're doing fine. Contrary to what Reddit would have you believe, most of the popular kids in schools weren't bullies in my experience. They were kids who for the most part were nice, had a stable home life, and maybe happened to be fairly athletic."

– GoldenFrog14

I managed to keep in touch with a handful of people from high school; therefore, I didn't think about anyone else from my class year.

That's why I never considered going to my high school reunion.

It's because I realized there was never a time when I wondered about how the popular students at my school were doing these days.

Have you?

school

Movie Twists That Caught Audiences Completely Off-Guard

Movie Twists That Caught Audiences Completely Off-Guard
Photo by Krists Luhaers on Unsplash

There's nothing like leaving a movie theater having just seen an excellent movie.

Particularly one that took you by surprise.

Perhaps it was deeper and more meaningful than it purported itself to be, or on the flip side, had much more warmth and humor that you would have expected.

Or, the film took an unexpected twist that you never saw coming.

Resulting in your needing to bite your tongue until the rest of your friends and family see the film, and not spoil the surprise for them.

Redditor HornyCorny was curious to hear which plot twists left viewers utterly speechless, leading them to ask:

"What’s a movie twist that caught you completely off guard?"

He Didn't See It Coming Either!

"Brad Pitt in 'Burn After Reading'."

"So surprising and downright freaking hilarious."- thefirehairman

If The Shoe Fits...

"'The Shawshank Redemption'."

"Come on."

"It's not always a man notices another man's shoes."- FUBARspecimenT-89

Lucky For Some, Not For All...

"'Lucky Number Slevin'."

"Huge twist and very satisfying."- kvlr954

angry josh hartnett GIF Giphy

Rosie O'Donnell Would Agree...

"Fight Club."- BuchseeI

"once watched it with a friend who had never even heard of it, and she called the twist like, a half hour in."

"She said it as a joke and didn't realize she was right until the actual reveal, but still I was shook."- yugosaki

I See You Keyser Söze

"The ending of 'The Usual Suspects'."- Schwarzes__Loch

Definitive Shyamalan

''The Sixth Sense'."

'I love movies with plot twists, but I never imagined this one. It caught me completely off guard."- lucasduka

Haley Joel Osment Movie GIF Giphy

The Title Is Also Misleading...

"The second half of 'Parasite'."- iwontrememberthat4

Appropriately, They Really Toyed With Your Cognition

"'The Game'."- DudeHeadAwesome

"Good one!'

"I spent the entire movie going 'is it a game? Is it real?'"- fastpixels

There Were Definitely Ghosts...

"'The Others'."

"Unsuspected end."- NeckComprehensive743

scared horror film GIF by FilmStruck Giphy

One Unforgettable Opening Scene

"'Scream'."

"The Drew Barrymore role."- LivingTheLife53

The Real Reason Everyone Is Terrified Of Bees...

"When I was a kid, I wanted to feel good and happy."

"So at the video store, I decided to rent a movie with two happy laughing kids on the DVD cover, thinking it would be a feel-good playful story."

"That movie was 'My Girl'."

"Eff that movie."

"Seriously."

'The DVD cover lies."

"IT LIES."- buckyhermit

You THOUGHT you knew who the villains were...

"'From Dusk to Dawn' — midway point."

"Didn’t know at all what I was walking into when saw it in the theatre decades ago — just, you know, Salma Hayek. Good enough."

"Quentin Tarantino slurping tequila from her foot after it ran down the entire length of her leg — that was already a 'Holy WTF' moment."

"But then, well.. . you know."

"And if you don’t know — quick, go watch it. "

"No trailer, no synopsis, no summary."

"Find it and load it 'blind' and fasten your seatbelt."

"You’re in for a wild ride."- canada11235813

George Clooney Tarantino GIF by MIRAMAX Giphy

It's Title Is More Than Accurate!

"'Crazy Stupid Love'."

"The scene when the whole movie goes apesh*t in the yard is one of my all time favorite movie scenes."- Fimbulvintern

Trifecta Of Twists

"'The Others'."

"The end of 'The Mist'."

"'The Prestige' (though, I ALMOST had it figured out, but not quite)."- Krinks1

There's nothing better than when a movie surprises you.

Even if it does make talking about said movie with people who haven't seen it a bit more challenging.

Case in point, people who saw The Sixth Sense and The Usual Suspects after their endings were spoiled for them, don't seem to like those movies as much as those who went in blind.


movies

People Share The Best Historical Facts They Know About Their Family

Black and white photo, Group at the Pyramids, Egypt, Sister Isabel Erskine Plante, World War II, circa 1942
Photo by Museums Victoria

Every family has its secrets.

It's up to every new generation to unearth it all.

Don't we all want to know if we're related to famous people?

Or what if we have a familial stake in lands and businesses?

Also, this is a good way to NOT end up dating blood relatives.

The more you know, the less awkward later.

As much as there is a lot of trauma there could be a lot of cool facts to to discuss at parties.

Redditor ForthrightPedant wanted to hear some interesting family histories, so they asked:

"What is a historical fact about your family that you think is kinda neat?"

I don't have any family history.

Of course I've done no investigating.

Maybe I do.

I should look!

Super Talent

Excited Happy Hour GIF by Boomerang Official Giphy

"Great-grandpa created the Flintstones. Dan Gordon. Drew lots of Hannah-Barbara cartoons, and directed the first three animated Superman films at the beginning of WW2 as well as several seasons of Popeye, Scooby Doo, Smurfs, Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound."

downnoutsavant

Bad Voyage

"My grandfather disliked America and wanted to return to Ireland. He booked passage on the Titanic’s return voyage. If it wouldn’t have sunk, no of us would be here."

mrseddievedder

"My great-grandmother was a Titanic survivor. She was a steerage-class Lebanese immigrant in an arranged marriage. Her husband went down with the ship but she managed to make it to a lifeboat and made it to the Carpathia. Then she remarried in a Lebanese neighborhood in Virginia. Had it not been for the iceberg that struck and sank the Titanic My family lineage would be different and I wouldn't be here. My family's official toast is 'to the iceberg.'"

jaspersurfer

Forgotten

"My husband's grandfather was one of the 'forgotten soldiers' in Canada. He was a Canadian-born Chinese man who asked the Canadian government to fight for his right to vote and a passport. Even tho he was born in Canada in the 20’s since he was Chinese he was not considered Canadian."

H"e was dropped into the Burma jungle and was told he would likely never return. He was in the 10% that did return. He was given the right to vote, to a passport, and to University."

"His wife is still alive today and my son is named after him."

cowskeeper

​Can you imagine?

"My great-grandmother had 13 kids, so she was pregnant for literally a decade. There’s two hundred of us now, all because of this one woman."

CoverlessSkink

"My great grandma had 14 kids. My grandma was the youngest. She died giving birth to my grandma. The oldest child who was like 22 years old raised my grandma. My great-grandfather remarried a woman who had 10 kids of her own. My grandma would tell me stories of them all living together. Can u imagine? 😦."

Content_Pool_1391

Long Ago

american wtf GIF by unimpressionism Giphy

"The land my dad was raised on and my cousins still live on was deeded to the family by George Washington as compensation for service during the Revolution. There was a document with his signature on it at the courthouse until a fire destroyed the records a few decades ago."

mustbethedragon

So much land and fortune and HISTORY has been lost due to fire.

Thank God we keep more than paper records now.

Over the Moon

Michael Jackson Dancing GIF Giphy

"My second cousin is David Scott who walked on the Moon and drove the moon buggy. My mom does. He was so busy during the time when I was young that he even said later in life that he wished she’d gotten to know more of his family."

Roadgoddess

The Union

"Great-great-great grandfather on my mom's side was working his field in the part of Virginia that split off and became a new state because they didn't want to secede from The Union. Union soldiers came along looking for conscripts and he was a young, able-bodied man so they told him to come with them. He informed them he was a Quaker and thus a pacifist. According to family lore, that discussion went on for a bit but he would not give in. So they shot him and left him there. Good thing he had a couple of kids well before that day."

SpottyNoonerism

Opportiunities

"My great-grandfather was offered a chance to invest in a new invention by a guy by the name of Alexander Graham Bell. He declined, saying at most there would be one telephone per town."

Carson4307

"That is apparently my family too."

"One uncle apparently built a version of a hot water heater and then sold the design to GE for a good sum back then."

"Another uncle was asked if he wanted to be in a photo during his military service. He said no so they raised the flag on Iwo Jima without him in it."

"No idea if any of these are true, at best they are enhanced truths, but for me, I really hope they are true."

Jormungand1342

Underground

"I have a relative who worked for the Underground Railroad and had a price on her head in the South."

dahlia6767

"My uncle was a carpenter. And was doing restoration work on old houses in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Many of those old, historical homes had underground railroad passageways and hidden walls. He got to see and restore many of them. He had photos of some of the work he was doing and I got to see those as a kid. Living in Southern Ohio, we have a lot of rich underground railroad history here."

AddictiveArtistry

​Family Empire

blood discussion GIF Giphy

"My great-grandfather was the town police chief in the 1920s. His brother was the Mayor. Their cousins ran the casino."

"My family was a smaller version of Boardwalk Empire."

nowhereman136

Wouldn't we all love a show based on our families?

Then that's even more neat family history.

family history

People Who Know Someone Super Rich Explain What Makes Them Different

Rolls Royce hood ornament
Matheus Bardemaker on Unsplash

The super wealthy aren't like most people.

How can they be?

They live in a world of rarefied air most people will never even glimpse.

That privilege inevitably warps perspectives.

Keep reading... Show less
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