Strangest thing found during service call!

Went to a factory today to do some air con servicing. Signed in as usual and went to use the back fire escape door to get quicker access. Opened the door only to be greeted by this! Nearly gave me a heart attack for a second.

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h.../work/bird.jpg


http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h...work/bird3.jpg

Apparently it was from the bird sanctuary down the road but due to it being able to get in and out when it wanted and the staff at the factory feeding it, now it spent most of its day here. Whats the strangest thing you've found on a service call!

( Hope the links work its the first time i have posted pictures)

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Originally Posted by richelli

Went to a factory today to do some air con servicing. Signed in as usual and went to use the back fire escape door to get quicker access. Opened the door only to be greeted by this! Nearly gave me a heart attack for a second.

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Don't you think that pea*c*o*c*k is little more scared than you in that moment.:D:D

Not that exotic I'm afraid.

But I once had an apprentice protecting me with a baseball bat, no I weren't working in Liverpool....
The SEAGULLS kept attacking us!

I also did a callout to a gym once, the plant room was located behind one of the changing rooms and last time I been there it had been the gents changing room.
I don't know who were most "chocked", me or the 10 ladies that was changing after their aerobics class when I exited the plant room...(Were told afterwards that only one of the changing rooms had a sauna and they therefore rotated them weekly, apparently I should have put a sign up?)

I think that your grade of "chocked" is somehow reverse proportional to their appearance.:D:D

I'd agree with Viking, it would have to be seagulls attacking me on a roof whilst looking at a chiller. I must have been near a nest becasue there were 5 seagulls that kept circling and then swooping down at me. My apprentice wasn't any help he was inside laughing:mad:

Nothing more frustrating than ones apprentice having a laugh while you battle on.Well,richelli,you were disturbing the pea**** on his lunch break!

I've had a few rats having a go at my hand while trying to unbolt a compressor on ground level.Told the manager to keep his pets at home....wasn't impressed!

Rats:eek: and i thought seagulls were bad.

strange things on service calls reminds me of being a junior engineer on the road, we used to hide an action man figure in a condenser, if you found it you would take it with you and hide it in another on a different site. it was a great buzz to find it and the figure travelled far and wide in the uk. dont know who started it but daft though it seemed it kind of made sure the guys had a goood look around the kit when servicing

I went to a supermarket pack call 2 days after store opened from refit to find no oil in it.

first thing i checked was oil sep which as always with our refits normally end up full of crap.

stripped sep down and found to my amusement someone had left a pair of boxer shorts in there.

no ones owned up to it.

At a big manor house i was called to they had a big eight door fosters freezer. They lady of the house kept all her dead pets in there WITH the families food etc:eek: She wasn't happy when i said it needed a new evaporator, and they all thawed out in the mean time:p

At one farm i worked on they shot a cow next to my van and i had to walk past it every time i needed something:mad: When i left i run its leg over by accident, made a horrible sort of squeeky noise, still makes me feel a bit sick if i think of it:(

The one time that my eyes were opened! I was attending a fridge van in the west of Scotland the call had came from the office that the problem was just not pulling temp! I got about looking at the unit. I then opened the side door of van and there were about a dozen size clear bin bags - on closer inspection I found 3 collies 2 alsations and various other dogs It turned out the place was a crematorium for pets !!!! they use the fridge van for going round various vets and picking up dead pets for cremation "smelly" !!!!!! what happened to the back garden?:eek:

once i had been sub contracted to repair an air conditioner at one of our local hospitals, went to the reception desk to ask where the air con was, and a guy came with me to show me... never knew that he was taking me to the mortuary room . Had to rep air con with this guy in the coffin, me up on the ladder and him under me..... was half expecting him to ask " hey mate, do you need a hand? "... still gives the shivers when i remember the ordeal.

I did a shaft seal replacement on an old Carrier 17m and found a coule of rags stuffed inside a compressor cavity. U can put c4 to those compressors and they still run. Im very intigued by old school engineering.

I got called to to a site where the reported fault was the compressor had thrown the belts off. Once I removed the guard I found bits of cat everywhere, not very nice. it appeared the cat had crawled up under the belt guard and went to sleep on the belts as it was nice and warm around the compressor and motor. Compressor started and it wasn't quick enough and got dragged in.
I got the site cleaners in to clean up the mess as this was not in my job description.
Paul

Strangest/most bizarre thing i've experienced was a service call to the local hospital. The coldroom where they keep the dead persons had a 'hanging' themostat, and it was TOO cold. The dead guys had more than 'rigor mortis', you could say. Guys working at the techs-departement at the hospital said the 'guest' in the coldroom didnt complain hehe. But they had taken them out of the coldroom, placed them against the wall....but they were now getting a bit 'saggy'in their knees and i had to come fix the problem. What did i do? I delivered a new thermostat and told them to change it themselves :)

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Originally Posted by Ridikulus

Strangest/most bizarre thing i've experienced was a service call to the local hospital. The coldroom where they keep the dead persons had a 'hanging' themostat, and it was TOO cold. The dead guys had more than 'rigor mortis', you could say. Guys working at the techs-departement at the hospital said the 'guest' in the coldroom didnt complain hehe. But they had taken them out of the coldroom, placed them against the wall....but they were now getting a bit 'saggy'in their knees and i had to come fix the problem. What did i do? I delivered a new thermostat and told them to change it themselves :)

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I did the first two years of my apprenticeship at a hospital. The worst I saw was bags of body parts :)

Every apprentice got a job working on the coolroom at the morgue. The tradesman would get the hospital to empty the slabs, then crawl in there himself under a sheet.
When the apprentice opens the door up he gets surprised when there's a body in there, then jumps and yells when the "body" gets up!

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Originally Posted by paul_h

I did the first two years of my apprenticeship at a hospital. The worst I saw was bags of body parts :)

Every apprentice got a job working on the coolroom at the morgue. The tradesman would get the hospital to empty the slabs, then crawl in there himself under a sheet.
When the apprentice opens the door up he gets surprised when there's a body in there, then jumps and yells when the "body" gets up!

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Brilliant!!!

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Originally Posted by paul_h

I did the first two years of my apprenticeship at a hospital. The worst I saw was bags of body parts :)

Every apprentice got a job working on the coolroom at the morgue. The tradesman would get the hospital to empty the slabs, then crawl in there himself under a sheet.
When the apprentice opens the door up he gets surprised when there's a body in there, then jumps and yells when the "body" gets up!

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that made me laugh, thanks for sharing :D

I got a call in the middle of the night to service a supermarket rack.

The rack was empty and there was oil all over the adjacent wall. Found a nice round hole in the liquid line and matching holes on either side of the (outside) wall. It seems the rack was the victim of a drive-by shooting.

While the manager was calling the police, I called my boss and told him the rack was "shot".

Nice one Gary.

we just give our racks a good old telling off and then go for a cup of tea.:D

I got a service call for a large A/C system, which I was told had been installed about ten years previously, but had never quite done the job from day one.

After several frustrating hours of scratching my head and testing everything I could think of, I finally narrowed it down to the condenser outlet.

Upon unbrazing the pipe, I found a large blob of rubber inside. The installer had forgotten to remove the rubber plug from the pipe before brazing it.

Back to your post on the drive by shooting gary,it shows you could have been working outside and been in the way of the liquid line.I still recomend extra personal life cover for us tradesman...:D

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Originally Posted by Springbok

Back to your post on the drive by shooting gary,it shows you could have been working outside and been in the way of the liquid line.I still recomend extra personal life cover for us tradesman...:D

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Or maybe bullet proof vests.

Elephants!!!!

Yep strangest thing I saw while working was a dead Elephant.
I'm in England remember and they tend not to be just roaming anywhere:D

One had died in a circus and they brought it to where I worked to despose of the body.
It was so big and strong its feet jammed the mincing machine:eek:

taz

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Originally Posted by PaulZ

I got called to to a site where the reported fault was the compressor had thrown the belts off. Once I removed the guard I found bits of cat everywhere, not very nice. it appeared the cat had crawled up under the belt guard and went to sleep on the belts as it was nice and warm around the compressor and motor. Compressor started and it wasn't quick enough and got dragged in.
I got the site cleaners in to clean up the mess as this was not in my job description.
Paul

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I was showing this ("curiosity killed the cat") to an AC/R friend of mine, and he commented, "That compressor sure was hungry for some pussy."

Called to L.A. County Morgue where I had to work around dead bodies some were not covered and were burned. While I was taking some measurements the morticians were remmoving the top of a babys skull. Another time I was put into a slide in dead body cooler backwards to repair a leaking evaporator coil while the attendent stood by to make sure nobody closed the door on me. :(

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Originally Posted by wambat

Called to L.A. County Morgue where I had to work around dead bodies some were not covered and were burned. While I was taking some measurements the morticians were remmoving the top of a babys skull. Another time I was put into a slide in dead body cooler backwards to repair a leaking evaporator coil while the attendent stood by to make sure nobody closed the door on me. :(

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Sorry!
But that is way "beyond the call of duty"

Grizzly

Recently, I have heard a story where a cat somehow got inside a condensing unit (likely when the top was removed for service while the technician was getting some supplies) and the unit started up with the cat inside. Of course, it then jumped up into the condenser fan, bending a blade and making quite a mess inside.

"What's worse than an air conditioner that likes to eat pussy?"
"Getting the bloody mess out of the condenser coils."

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Originally Posted by star882

"What's worse than an air conditioner that likes to eat pussy?"
"Getting the bloody mess out of the condenser coils."

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STAR!!!

All this time I thought that you were a Lady....:eek::eek::eek:

I thought it was funny since I wasn't the one who had to clean it up. I'm sure it wasn't very funny for the one who did have to clean up. As for the cat, "curiosity killed the cat" - Darwinism in action.

OK,

I think we have found another discrepancy between UK and US English.

But I'm too much of a gentleman to tell you the UK meaning of "eating pussy".

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Originally Posted by The Viking

OK,

I think we have found another discrepancy between UK and US English.

But I'm too much of a gentleman to tell you the UK meaning of "eating pussy".

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Means the same thing here mate ;)

Not as exciting as some of the other posts but i found a bird stuck in the air filter of a TK truck unit.

Years ago I did high rise a/c maintenance, one particular building insisted that work was done afer hours due to professional clients on several floors. OK this night I'm there as usual 7.00pm, clear security and sign out swipe card to go anywhere, barrow of filters in tow. Top floor start, into staff room and low and behold senior director of International Accountancy firm chock a block *** in office junior, obviously applying for salary increase. Me... backed out with out a word being said. Next day call from senior director inviting me for drinks the next friday for a chat. We all had a great laugh and a lot of back patting and drinks. This is the first time Ive mentioned it, now the world nows.
magoo

I found these two beauties abt 20 years ago working on some package A/C units. My sons took them to school for show and tell. I still have them in my office (why? I don't know)

Talking about spiders I was workin at Demonte (the man who says yes) and they often come across weird spiders.
The one I remember most was a Malaysian fighting spider.
Quite a big spider but it had no fear it offer'd 4 of us out at once and it took 6 to contain it.
6 brave straping grown men squealing like little girls.

Cheers taz

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Originally Posted by Gary

, I called my boss and told him the rack was "shot".

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lol, very funny

we serviced an a/c unit in a london flat due to a pungent smell emitting from it and the new tenant wasnt happy about it, on climbing into the ceiling space we found a large pack wrapped up in plastic bags,on inspection it appeared to be "cooking herbs" up went the toolbox, down come the toolbox,
"dirty filters and coil mate"
customer happy,
apprentice happier!
allegedly!!!

so I,m sure you,ve all seen these at one point in time

I was going to a reefer container course in Oakland at the APL terminal. Class room was right above the Reefer shop, I came in one day and the guys were all laughing and I asked what was up, If a ship has a problem van aboard and is in port the shipside reefer man can call for shore side reefers to come look at the van and determine if the van may have to be removed from the ship to be repaired,

A ship had loaded some reefer vans in Long Beach and in Oakland they got a call to the ship about a van that would not come down to set point, So the reefer shop guy shows up and goes and looks at the van and low and behold, the compressor is missing, As in not there, Some where still back in Long beach,

Somehow this van had passed the pre trip, was actually loaded with cargo and sent to the ship and nobody noticed it did not even have a compressor,

That van was the talk of the dock for quite awhile,

Deu58