Elevator Maintenance Workers Share Weird Finds

From Reddit user u/KnightOfNoir

Bundle of Watchtower magazines (Jehovah's witnesses pamphlets) wrapped in duct tape. Inside, a Rossi .44 Special revolver and a screwdriver were found.

From Reddit user u/nibiyabi

My dad has a great story. He supervised the mechanics. One mechanic called him from a mental hospital and said, "You've got to see this." The maintenance guy was called because the elevator didn't sit level on the ground floor; it was half an inch too high. Both patients and staff tripped on it. Other floors had no issues.

My dad arrived to find the maintenance guy laughing while looking into the shaft bottom. Tens of thousands of magazines likely lay down there. They needed shovels, a small crew, and a rolling dumpster to clear it out. After cleanup, my dad stayed in the lobby, pretending to read a newspaper. About half an hour later, he saw an elderly patient holding a magazine, slowly moving toward the elevator. He stopped before the doors, looked left, looked right, quickly bent down, slid the magazine into the gap, and walked away fast with a huge grin. My dad laughed hard. This guy likely slid magazines in daily for decades. Should I ask him if he reported it, or let him keep having fun? My dad might go with the latter.

From Reddit user u/Hocktober:

Worked at a hotel. A guest dropped their phone down the shaft. After several failed attempts to retrieve it, we called the elevator guys. They went down, got the phone, and also found a carton of eggs. They were rotten but not cracked. I do not grasp how that happened by accident.

From Reddit user u/chemical_painting777:

I have been in this game for 12 years. I found a full Christmas tree last month.

Other finds included 5k in £20 notes, a big bag of [hard substances], and a load of brand new shoes by the box. A finger was severed.

Back story.

A Christmas tree appeared this year on a council estate in August. Photos were taken for the office because it was funny. I visit this lift every month.

The money and hard substances appeared in the same lift, shifted about three months apart, seven years ago. I split the money with my engineer; I was an apprentice then when we gave the hard substances to security.

The shoes were found on a passenger/staff lift at the back of JD Sports. Police got involved because a staff member likely stuck them down there and loaded them into a car at the end of his shift.

Police and EMG services got involved in finding the finger in a very expensive apartment building. This building had fifty floors and million-pound apartments.

From Reddit user u/sho0terman:

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

A thief snatched a $2500 gold necklace covered in poop from the jewelry department. The shoplifter darted out of the elevator while 'suitcasing' the necklace. Realizing they waited at the exit level, he returned up a floor, took it out, and dropped it down the shaft.

We caught him anyway, surprising him greatly.

From Reddit user u/PianistCryuff

Elevator workers in my dad's office complex found parts of a dog's skeleton. They found only random pieces, not the whole skeleton.

From Reddit user u/aimeeerp:

My dad worked as an elevator mechanic for about 15 years.

He had a dark sense of humor. He would come home with wild stories. For instance, in an elevator, he would shake it or tap the buttons, saying, 'Yep. Total piece of crap. Inferior piece of crap.' I think he did this to scare people.

A call told him someone heard strange noises from the elevator. He entered, rode up, and heard it too. For half a second, he thought it was a baby crying, then realized it was a cat. At a certain floor, he heard a sad meow. The cat was not in the car. He went into the shaft and found a small orange kitty. It somehow got into the shaft between floors, not trapped below but unable to escape.

My dad saved the cat and gave it to the building manager to check if it belonged to anyone.

This was the one story my dad told us about saving an animal instead of finding dead ones.

From Reddit user u/D28wt:

A baseball coach lost his glass eyeball in the elevator shaft. A maintenance guy found it and reacted with WTF.

From Reddit user u/Myjunkisonfire:

I dropped my driver's license into the small gap in the elevator doors. It slipped through. It reappeared in my mail ten years later! It was expired, but some maintenance guy found it and tried to return it.

From Reddit user u/shleppenwolf

At a place my wife used to work, a body was found.

There was an impact near the elevator. The boss checked it, returned white as a sheet, and said, 'Do not go there.' Two maintenance workers worked on the elevator; one was in the shaft bottom, and the other made a small mistake.

From Reddit user u/ThunderFyngers:

We work for a major transit hub with our own trade departments. I work in elevating.

The weirdest things I have found are listed below.

Chucky doll head. Thirteen rubber duckies in one pit. Drug needles almost daily. Silicone Gimp mask.

Every day is an adventure.

From Reddit user u/drdisney:

A worker at a large hotel, not a technician, saw a three-foot pile of undelivered guest folios when an elevator stopped working. A security guard dropped the papers down the shaft for months until he got caught on camera.

From Reddit user u/Do-or-Die89:

A doll sat upright in a corner.

A little bag of speed.

From Reddit user u/Atlas_Black

I knew the maintenance guy. I lived in an apartment building with an elevator. I often left things in the shaft to mess with the maintenance guy.

I started this because I knew he was superstitious and paranoid. He treated my female roommate badly.

So... Yeah.

I left things just to mess with him around the apartment complex.

In the elevator shaft, I left a pentagram circled by candles. I placed a porcelain doll and two knives, used for cleaning chickens and deer, still with blood on them, in the center.

Beneath the first-floor stairs, there was an empty space where he stored tools behind a metal door. In the back corner, behind tools he rarely touched, I put a small mattress and old Polaroids I bought at an estate sale. I scratched out the eyes and faces on some of them. He thought someone lived under the stairs.

On the building roof, by the AC units, I left a copy of the Satanic Bible I got from a girl I met on Tinder.

The maintenance guy told our Landlord there was a Satanic witch squatting under the stairs. She performed rituals and practiced witchcraft in the elevator shaft.

I moved out with my girlfriend soon after. My old roommate heard from the landlord that the maintenance guy left the building. The landlord figured out it was me shortly after I left. The landlord found it hilarious.

From Reddit user u/Icy-Necessary-5189:

Over 1500 tax returns sat at the bottom of the ATO's North Brisbane office elevator shaft.

From Reddit user u/DukeOfIRL

Guests report waterfall sounds in the elevator shaft heading to the lobby. An investigation started. The sump pump at the bottom of the shaft runs constantly. Water keeps coming from the drain even after unplugging it. Third shift maintenance notes show multiple first-floor rooms had clogged toilets all night. A plumber was called. The six-inch sewer drain for the whole building is clogged. This is the worst clog seen in 15 years. Over seven inches of clog fills the pipe. It backed up into the laundry room, the elevator shaft drain, and the rooms nearest the main pipe exit (first-floor suites).

Solid turds were left at the bottom of that shaft. I quit about a week later for other reasons.

Roach Motel in Elevator Maintenance Workers Share Weird FindsRoach Motel in Elevator Maintenance Workers Share Weird Finds

We ripped out an old factory. They gutted it, turning it into luxury apartments. The elevator we removed was a filthy, old freight elevator. We ran it up and inspected the pit. It smelled like a body had sat there for fifty years. The bottom floor lacked light, so I shone my flashlight under the elevator, and the whole floor moved. Roaches. Gross.

Thank The Emergency Shutoff in Elevator Maintenance Workers Share Weird FindsThank The Emergency Shutoff in Elevator Maintenance Workers Share Weird Finds

I worked at a 22-story building with the state's first automated elevator. The system let you push a button for your floor; the elevator directed you to the correct one. This controlled crowd flow in the lobby.

Thank The Emergency Shutoff in Elevator Maintenance Workers Share Weird Finds

My left hand did not trip the sensors. The doors shut on my hand, stopping it from closing fully due to my heavy rings and wedding band. This crushed the mess and lost a two-carat diamond 22 stories down. My hand only bruised; a safety shutoff saved me.

Thank The Emergency Shutoff in Elevator Maintenance Workers Share Weird Finds

Black Hole For Random Objects in Elevator Maintenance Workers Share Weird FindsBlack Hole For Random Objects in Elevator Maintenance Workers Share Weird FindsBlack Hole For Random Objects in Elevator Maintenance Workers Share Weird Finds

The contents depend on the building or neighborhood. I saw everything: dirty diapers, used needles, keys, wallets, phones, picture frames, sandwiches, and a tomagachi finished the list.

Black Hole For Random Objects in Elevator Maintenance Workers Share Weird Finds

Oil Spill in Elevator Maintenance Workers Share Weird FindsOil Spill in Elevator Maintenance Workers Share Weird FindsOil Spill in Elevator Maintenance Workers Share Weird Finds

Oil Spill in Elevator Maintenance Workers Share Weird Finds