The most unusual find whilst on the job!

[John Preston]

Many moons ago I was wiring the heating systems that British gas were installing throughout Ordstall housing estate in Salford, Manchester. It was the type of place where you needed to be streetwise if you know what I mean.

I was working on the top floor of a 3 storey block of flats one particular time and all the work was in the bathroom. A joiner appeared at the bathroom door and asked if he could use the toilet as he needed a poo... I told him politely to do one and to use the flat next door as there was nobody living there and the front door had been kicked in two... like a stable door.

So off he went to have a poo out of my way. Anyway all of a sudden he came running back in with his trollies round his knees shouting "there's a fookin bomb in there!" Obviously I knew more about bombs than he did so I thought I had best go check.

Well bugger me, attached to the header tank was a plastic explosive with wires, battery and a clock!

Needless to say we legged it and undertook a mass exodus of the building. Police, fire brigade and bomb squad turned up and took it away in large lead box....

Never saw the joiner again for some reason!

Anyone else found anything unusual on the job?

 

[Pete999]

Couple of Thou in old fivers

 

[Rpa07]

I don’t think you’ll be outdone on that one John - best I’ve found is old screwdrivers and dehydrated rats! I’ll keep looking though.

Many moons ago I was wiring the heating systems that British gas were installing throughout Ordstall housing estate in Salford, Manchester. It was the type of place where you needed to be streetwise if you know what I mean.

I was working on the top floor of a 3 storey block of flats one particular time and all the work was in the bathroom. A joiner appeared at the bathroom door and asked if he could use the toilet as he needed a poo... I told him politely to do one and to use the flat next door as there was nobody living there and the front door had been kicked in two... like a stable door.

So off he went to have a poo out of my way. Anyway all of a sudden he came running back in with his trollies round his knees shouting "there's a fookin bomb in there!" Obviously I knew more about bombs than he did so I thought I had best go check.

Well bugger me, attached to the header tank was a plastic explosive with wires, battery and a clock!

Needless to say we legged it and undertook a mass exodus of the building. Police, fire brigade and bomb squad turned up and took it away in large lead box....

Never saw the joiner again for some reason!

Anyone else found anything unusual on the job?

 

[Midwest]

Bottles of booze under the floorboards at a girls boarding school, along with some curious electrical items I knew not what the purpose of?

 

[Pete999]

An Apprentice on one occasion, left the little scrotum under the downstairs floor for a few minutes till he started wailing for his Mum.

 

[John Preston]

Bottles of booze under the floorboards at a girls boarding school, along with some curious electrical items I knew not what the purpose of?

Found quite a few of those small electrical items whilst rewiring a council estate. We used to swap them round from one house to another for a laugh.

 

[John Preston]

An Apprentice on one occasion, left the little scrotum under the downstairs floor for a few minutes till he started wailing for his Mum.

Can't do that anymore!

 

[Pete999]

Can't do that anymore!

No I know, mind you I did feel guilty and sorry afterwards, good job he had a sense of humor, and no malice.

 

[Top Cat]

I was working in a terraced house in the roof space and was surprised to see no dividing wall between terraces.
As I moved along I found a pile of dirty magazines, the guy had knocked a hole in the airing cupboard ceiling and hid them there from his wife. I moved them along a bit, I bet he thought his wife had found them!

 

[Squid]

As an apprentice nearing the end of my time I was working at the V+A museum and had access to various places including the store rooms underground, opened one door and found the boots to Tommy's Rock Opera, they where massive.

 

[Squid]

Got in to the lift one day at work and bumped in to Alice Cooper (really nice chap) a few weeks later it was Belinda Carlisle.

 

[freddo]

Found a glass jar with loads of bat bones and a bat skeleton in it the other day.

 

[Gavin John Hyde]

found a old box under floorboards on a job once, was all 2 world war stuff, had old grenades in, slightly rusty, rusty gun parts etc... one of hte family vaguely recalled the grandad or uncle saying there was the emergency stuff in there from the war but nobody ever got it up.
being ex forces i took it in garden and called the plod and army took it away for safe disposal. police were not too impressed i took it out to the garden

 

[Squid]

Ahhhh just remembered did a job or my Uncle on a house in Marylebone and climbed in to the loft to come face to face with a WWII Squadron Leaders personal box.

 

[HRM-ELEC]

Removed a down stairs celling while carrying out a referb job, hacking away.. 50+ dirty mags from the 80s came crashing down.

 

[Top Cat]

Ahhhh just remembered did a job or my Uncle on a house in Marylebone and climbed in to the loft to come face to face with a WWII Squadron Leaders personal box.

Was it a female squadron leader or male?

 

[MJPD29]

Ww2 helmet under the floor with initials on liner

 

[Bobster]

Once found a live copperhead snake inside a control panel from a second hand machine we had shipped to us for refurb.

Took me by surprise when I took the trunking lid off to find it curled up in there. Not the type of snake you want to be bit from either.

 

[Michael Sands]

Found a noddy floor jigsaw in a loft in a void property never came back down till I finished it

 

[freddo]

Oh yea that reminds me, found an entire furnished bedroom in the loft of a bungalow, the elderly owners had no idea it was up there.

 

[ruston]

Ahhhh just remembered did a job or my Uncle on a house in Marylebone and climbed in to the loft to come face to face with a WWII Squadron Leaders personal box.

I had something similar only it was a boarded up attic . All the memorabilia was spread on the floor as though he had done it to be found . There was a tailors dummy wearing his Squadron leaders uniform , and pictures of him in Egypt standing next to a a Sopwith Camel type plane from WWI. He had been in both wars.
He was in the Pathfinder Squadron In WWII.
It was a very moving experience.

 

[Squid]

Removed a down stairs celling while carrying out a referb job, hacking away.. 50+ dirty mags from the 80s came crashing down.

That was lunch time taken care of......

 

[EbolaSideRoom]

On a rewire of a kitchen once we found a pair of miniature maracas under the floorboards. Still got them in the van....

 

[ruston]

On a rewire of a kitchen once we found a pair of miniature maracas under the floorboards. Still got them in the van....

Just be careful where yo are clacking them .

 

[freddo]

Just be careful where yo are clacking them .

Isn't that castanets?!

 

[ruston]

Isn't that castanets?!

Probably , but those maracas could do some damage to his castanets.

 

[Squid]

Not me but where the girlfriend used to work the young ladies and interns where located on the mezzanine floor, in the summer it would get extremely hot up there as there was no aircon and the young ladies would end up woking in shorts or skirts and bikini tops, never seen workmen so keen to return especially in the summer.

 

[FatAlan]

found a old box under floorboards on a job once, was all 2 world war stuff, had old grenades in, slightly rusty, rusty gun parts etc... one of hte family vaguely recalled the grandad or uncle saying there was the emergency stuff in there from the war but nobody ever got it up.
being ex forces i took it in garden and called the plod and army took it away for safe disposal. police were not too impressed i took it out to the garden

Reminds me of a story my grandad told me. He was semi retired, ex merchant navy and and London Fire Brigade. Was working as a night watchman in Fleet Street during one of the IRA’s bombing campaigns. They had a suspect package and were in the process of cordoning things off. Thing was that it was getting near the end of the shift and time for a few beers. He could face staying on a bit longer so just picked the package up and chucked it in the Thames.

 

[Michael Sands]

A bit of a sprint to get to the Thames
Sounds like uncle Albert

 

[FatAlan]

A bit of a sprint to get to the Thames

This is the same guy that in his mid 60s tried to shin up a flag pole cos the Union Flag was flying upside down. The strain gave him a mild heart attack but he still managed to walk half a mile up hill returning from pub.

 

[FatAlan]

This is the same guy that in his mid 60s tried to shin up a flag pole cos the Union Flag was flying upside down. The strain gave him a mild heart attack but he still managed to walk half a mile up hill returning from pub.

Happy days. He used to leave my brother and I in the car with a toasted sandwich and a bottle of coke while he had few beers in the pub. Then drive us home