24 Random Things Elevator Repair Workers Found Hidden In Elevator Shafts
You never really think about what’s hanging out in an elevator shaft until someone whose job it is to look in there starts telling stories.
These elevator maintenance workers shared some of the weirdest and most random things they’ve come across between floors.
1.
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 [trash]. Inferior piece of [trash].’ 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 [deceased] ones.
2.
I am not an elevator maintenance person, but I have been in dozens of elevator shafts for work. Anyway, the elevator shafts must be cleared to ensure that there aren’t any explosive devices. Basically, any place that POTUS or the VIP will go needs to be checked out. I’ve done a fair amount of “elevator surfing”, which is riding on top of the car.
The weirdest (and funniest) thing I’ve seen was a 12 inch (around that height) Superman figurine that had its feet glued to the top of the elevator. The head was slightly tilted back and the arms were pointed upwards so it appeared like Superman was flying up, up, and away! whenever the elevator was in use. I have a picture of it saved on an external hard drive somewhere. That was hilarious.
3.
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.
4.
I used to work at an old 22 story building that had the first automated elevator system in our state. The idea was, in order to control the flow of people in the lobby you’d push the button for your floor and the elevator would tell you which one to get on. The elevators would make sure the crowds spread out over the big lobby.
Anyway, it was the first time I’d ever seen the auto-open eyes used, too. I worked on the executive floor, where long winded executives would often stop me as I was leaving. I got used to passing my hand through the doors to break the eye and hold the doors open.
You guessed it; my left hand didn’t trip the eye. The doors closed on my hand which was prevented from closing completely because of my heavy engagement and wedding rings. Crushed the whole mess and lost a two two carat diamond 22 stories below. My hand was only bruised, thank goodness for a safety shutoff.
I like to think that someday, someone will find a tiny treasure.
5.
My dad has been an elevator repair man for almost 30 year now. His best find to date was a $12,000 yellow diamond engagement ring! Tried for a while to find the owner, but eventually he got to keep it.
6.
I worked as a phlebotomist in a hospital and had just drawn an elderly male patient. As I pushed my little cart into the elevator to go back down to the lab, his blood vials rolled off and both went right down the gap into the shaft. I felt so bad and went immediately back to tell him I had to redraw him. He was thrilled! Said he was excited his blood would be down the shaft for eternity. Such a funny guy.
7.
One of my baseball coaches when I was a kid lost his glass eyeball in the elevator shaft. Maintenance guy gave a solid W*F.
8.
I’ve found ID cards, keys, small deceased animals (lizards and rats mostly), lots of cob webs, hypodermic needles, one air pod, and things like that. The weirdest thing I’ve ever found as a repair guy is a clean pit. The service guys seem to not clean anything.
9.
Bundle of Watchtower magazines (Jehovah’s witnesses pamphlets) wrapped in duct tape. Inside it was a Rossi .44 Special revolver and a screwdriver.
10.
Retired 40 years in the trade the best I ever found was a $20.00 bill but know a man that found a $7000.00 diamond ring kept it for six months no one ever asked about it and he gave it to his wife.
11.
The elevator guys in my dad’s office complex found pieces of a dog’s skeleton. Not the whole skeleton, just random parts.
12.
A couch. Not joking. It was a walk in pit that a homeless person had retrofit into a small living room.
13.
Been in the game 12 years now.
Found a full Christmas tree last month
Other finds
5k in £20 notes
Big bag of [illegal substances]. Roughly 5kg
Brand new shoes by the box load.
Severed finger
So backstory.
Christmas tree was found this year on a council estate in August. Photos was taken for the office as it was rather amusing. I visit this lift every month.
The money and [illegal substances] was found in the same lift shift around 3 months apart 7 years ago. The money was spilt between me and my engineer as I was an apprentice at the time.
The shoes was found on a passenger/staff lift out the back of JD sports. Suspect a staff member was sticking them down there and loading into a car at the end of his shift. Police was involved in this one.
The finger was found in a very expensive apartment building. We talking 50 floors and million£+ apartments.
Again police and emg services involved in this one.
14.
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 [feces].. 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.
15.
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.
16.
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.
17.
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.
18.
My dad is a LR for thyssenkrupp. He finds all sorts of neat things!
Best find: $100 CAD.
Worst find: 20+ year old banana peel.
Most interesting find: Glass eye (sorry whoever it belongs to, I have your eye on my shelf).
19.
Well over 1500 tax returns at the bottom of the ATO’s north brisbane office elevator shaft.
20.
At a place where my wife used to work: a body.
There was a crash from the elevator area. The boss went to see what it was, came back white as a sheet, and said “*Do not go out there*.” Two maintenance guys had been working on the elevator, one was in the bottom of the shaft, and the other one made one small error…
But I’m guessing the single most unusual item ever found at the bottom of an elevator shaft was a Wright R-2600 aircraft engine, on July 28, 1945 in the Empire State Building.
21.
A whole salmon and a king crab, same kitchen elevator of a seafood restaurant.
$100 in $20 bills.
22.
Work for a major transit hub, we have our own trade departments. Im in elevating.
Weirdest things i have found are as follows.
Chucky doll head.
13 rubber duckies in one pit.
Needles almost daily.
Silicone Gimp mask.
Every day is an adventure.
23.
Here’s an obligatory “not one of the elevator maintenance folk” story.
My dad had a Razr phone back when they were still cool. Just to annoy him, my mom changed the ringtone to the sound of a meowing cat. My dad absolutely hated it, but didn’t change it.
Anyway, one day at work, he’s getting out of the elevator and accidentally drops his phone into the crack between the elevator car and the doors!
He calls maintenance and asks them if they can get his phone back, but they say sorry, we can’t do that. So he’s standing outside the elevator thinking of what to do and he gets an Idea. Running into a nearby office, he asks a coworker if he can use their desk phone for a second… and proceeds to call his own phone. He does this a few times.
A couple minutes later, someone else hysterically phones security, saying that there’s a cat stuck in the elevator shaft. A few other people in the elevator at the time corroborate the story, so the elevator maintenance folk run the elevator up the shaft and shine some light down there.
Meanwhile, my dad and some other people are standing by the open doors to the shaft, looking downwards.
My dad says, “Hey, I don’t see any cat…but I think I see my phone down there! Can you guys grab it for me?”
And they do.
24.
Elevator guys once found a envelope with my name on it and gave it to security. Next time I was in the building working they gave it to me and it was basically a letter from a guard that was fired like 6 or 7 years prior telling me to [get lost]. Made for a good laugh the rest of the day.