Unusual Call Back Stories

I know you guys have a good afterhours call back story. Lets hear them.

I was told this story by one of my fellow mechanic. It was a new contract the guy was taking the trouble call at. When he walked in the machine room a homeless guy was alseep on the floor. The mechanic woke him up and asked him what he was doing in there. Guy said the previous mechanic was charging him 20 bucks a week to be able to live in the machine room. The homeless guy main lined one of the cars cause it was maching a loud screeching noise and he could not sleep.

I have not a very nice one ...but......just took over the nightshift in a certain company, had a call for an entrapment in a small hotel (after the manager left for the night) pushed the ground floor button the door opened and there was a youngish lady lying on the floor covered in blood and extremely disorieentated (and a bit drunk ).....needless to say I s@@T myself......of course rang for the emergency services, because I thought she had been beaten up.....about 5 cop cars and 2 ambulances turned up and took her away real quick, in the end it looks like she had fallen down the stairs and dragged herself to the lift and somehow managed to push the emergency call button!!!!

and this is for the guys in Australia who know the story bout the ( wont say the company but EVERYONE knows here) mechanic who was caught in an extremely compromising situation with another person of the same sex in a machine room.

Years ago I was doing a service on a duplex when the bldg. manager caught me in the basement and said, "This elevator on the left is not responding again, happens every other day" Oh really? "Yeah" I thought to myself... "I was here on a call back the other day, but it was ROA." So it turns out the safe string is open. OK. The cars at the 3rd landing, but no DZ. Huh. Up to 3, pick the doors, roll open the car doors, and there they are! The two office love bugs having a time in the cab. They had discovered the stop switch wasn't alarmed, and they could hanky panky for a spell and simply push the switch back in and away they'd go. How could they possibly get caught? I don't think they heard the doors open, but I know they heard them close! Consequently, both alarm bells were wired back in to the stop switch to avoid future nuisance calls.

Similar to yours elmcannic.

Except...

I came into the job early and found a car in the blind hatch on inspection. Old Otis job and loadweighing switches RC and TC falling in and out, in and out. Blocked the doors, jumped out in the car stop switch, and ran the car to the lobby and opened the doors.

Alas...It was my boss and a secretary in their secret love elevator and trying to get dressed with the doors open and the car in the lobby.

We never talked about it, but he knew.LOL..

That is what you call job security,my friend.;)

The Boss had just booked an old Flea Bag hotel called “The Californian”. There were two elevators, an AC passenger with swing doors and a Tiller Line hydro freight in the back. The Passenger provided one of the most interesting calls I have ever answered. We’ll start with the layout of the lobby. The lobby of this dump was fairly typical. There was a long couch that normally housed around eight to ten residents in various stages of decay. The couch faced the elevator, which was the center of activity for the entire hotel. Upon arriving I looked into the vision panel and saw that the car was about four feet above the floor with the inner door open. I noticed something else, legs, long legs, legs that ended at a very short red skirt. By this time the guys on the couch had spotted me and were starting to come out of their semi-conscious state. Well, hit the machine room fix this thing and get on home. To get to the machine room you had to walk across the entire roof. There is no way to compare this journey. You had to pass every vent for every toilet and sink in the building. I’ve walked by hundreds of sewage vents in my time, but these where different. These vents where almost lethal. There had to be something terribly wrong with either the sewer system or the tenants’ digestive systems. It could even be the food served in that area. All I can say is that it was a mad dash, rag in face to the machine room. Once in the machine room, I found the manila governor rope unraveled and wrapped around the governor itself. No fix here, rag in face then mad dash to the stairwell. Back in the lobby it would be an easy deal to get the trapped passengers out. I needed to get a ladder and unbolt the swing door lock. I heard a rustling and a kind of low conversation behind me. Looking over my shoulder I noticed that the Old Timers on the couch had become even more interested in what I was doing. Most had reached full consciousness. I got the swing door open and the legs were still there. To this day I can’t figure out how a great pair of legs like those could be somehow attached to one of the worst looking faces in San Diego. With the door wide open and the car at shoulder level, I’d seen all I needed to so it was time to get on with this deal. I put the ladder up against the toe guard and said to the guy in the car “I’ll help you out and you help her out, OK”? He answered in the affirmative. He backed down the ladder and the rustling behind us increased. It was her turn so she started backing down the ladder. At this point it was obvious that she didn’t believe in underwear. She was backing down the ladder with her partner’s assistance when I heard a loud snap behind me. Checking over my shoulder, I couldn’t identify the source of the snap but every eye ball on the couch was not just wide open but beyond wide open. To this day all I can figure out is that while she backed down the ladder, exposing it all, the Old Timers were finally awake and missed nothing. The snapping noise had to come from their eye balls popping open in unison along with broad smiles lighting up their faces. The next day we replaced the governor rope. The old guys on the couch were wide awake, slapping backs, poking each other in the ribs with all eyes glued to the elevator.

Ran a route in central L.A. in the mid 80's with every gang infested turd bucket building in town on it for a small mom and pop. Part of my route was on the 900 block of south Normandie, area was surrounded by a gang called Mara Salvatrucha. This company hired a probie who just got out of the Army and into the Trade and unfortunately for him paired him with me. Showing him some elevators on Normandie we found one down, start up the stairs. At the 3rd floor of this crap hole we ran into this gangbanger I kinda knew, but more importantly he knew me kinda, chillin on the stairs. We talked a minute and on to the roof. Typical roof for the area, eyeball burning stench of piss, every door and padlock stomped and kicked to crap, broken bottles everywhere and the local artists had covered every vertical surface, I don't know who Lil' Puppet was but he was EVERYWHERE. We open the machine room door and discover the pharmacutical center for the MS, empty coke folds everywhere and I think to myself "DAMMIT". Look around and over my shoulder, all OK. Tell the Probie they have been using the machine room to cut and package cocaine. Found an open fuse, down to the van. We pass the gangbanger at 3 and he asks what we are doing on the roof. I tell him we are working on the elevator and he suggests to hurry up, makes me a little nervous. Find the fuses and start back when two guys sitting in a Caddie parked on the street stop us and ask what we were doing on the roof, now really nervous. I tell them we were working on the elevator but now we just need to pick up my tools and leave. We RUN upstairs, passing the 3rd floor the Hommie tells us to hurry the f**k up and get out. I was grabbing my tools in the machine room when it dawned upon me to check on my probie, he had just been following me around."You Ok?" I asked and he nervously replied "Ya, what's going on?" with a look of terror on his face. No time to explain but I told him "We are going to quickly walk out and to the van and DO NOT look around or stare as we go.". When we got out of the building, every fire escape of every building on the block was full of gangbangers staring us down, it was unreal.

Fire Service Late 60s'

We had just completed Phase One recall on the service car at First National Bank and it was back in service and running fine until … a few months down the line.

I was on call when an overtime call came in on this very elevator. I checked in with the security guard and went looking for the elevator. The PI lights were out so it was a simple matter of picking a couple of locks to find the car. I picked the lock at the bottom floor and no elevator. I traveled to the top floor, picked that lock and still no elevator. I went to mid travel, picked that lock and still no car. But something else was missing … the Comp Ropes. I went back to the top floor for another look, picked the lock again and checked out the hoistway. The traveling cables were there OK, but wait a minute … this is the top landing. This time looked up and there it was, way up in the top of the hoistway. It was time to go to the machine room. I looked down the cable block out in the machine room floor and two inches below the slab was the two to one sheave. By now it was midnight and there was nothing that could be done anyway. I gave the security guard the bad tidings and headed for home.

Because his job was hanging by a thread to begin with, Russ was always acutely aware of his profit and loss statement. Overtime calls on full maintenance jobs stretched that thread a little tighter. So every morning when he hit the office he checked the log for overtime callbacks. If there had been a call you could bet on getting a page at 7:30 am on the dot. The twenty question routine could get a little irritating before the start of the work day. So with his hand on his wallet the questions would begin. “What happened at First National last night?”
“DC Overload was tripped.”
“What caused that?”
“The overhead.”
“Gasp” then “What overhead?”
“The overhead at the top of the hoistway.”
“Did you get the car running again?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“It was on the safeties.”
“What stopped you from running the car up to release them?”
“The machine beams.”
Phone hits carpet.
Fumbling noise.
“Where are you?”
“First National.”
Dial Tone.

Lol! nice one!

I agree good stuff

Similar to another story i've read i attended a call at a building where builders where doing a reno on a floor.

They stated that the lift 'just stopped' and don't have any idea why. The lift luckily was near floor level on a floor and the doors were open. The bastards had opened the trap door, knowingly shorted out the contact, and had placed about 10 lengths of 4 by 2 timbers thru the open hatch. Then when going up the cwt jammed solid between the 2. Suffice to say we went absolute nuts and told the builders just what could've occured and got them the saw them in half and lucky for them there was no damged to rails or guides. They pleaded with us not to report the finding(making it official) and i'm not sure what happened after that as i left the job to meet another mechanic at another site.

Dumb, just dumb.

They had a load of 2x4s using them to climb out of the car or someone opened the door and dropped them down to them?

At one of the garages in the complex two construction workers got trapped. They did not speak or read english. They could not read the instructions to open the panel and use the intercom. They called a co-work and he John Wayne'd up with a crow bar. They pried the door open. The interlock box had the guts ripped out of it. The door restrictor was bent back and everything was really bad off. Building management came out took pictures. The construction company ended up having to buy a mini door mod. Cameras in the cab are a building managements best friend. The guy denied it. Well at least I think they did I dont speak spanish. The tape speaks all languages.

A hotel in LA......I found a 25 ft wrapped around a set of pick up rollers, and a set at the next floor missing. Pulled the cord gave it to maintenance. a week later I saw the security video. A maid at the first floor 2 floors are below her. She is vacuuming the elevator with the plug plugged into cop 115vac plug, car is on normal. She stops on every floor,and clean sills and the mats in front of the elevator. Ist floor had a larger mat steps out door closes behind her, and goes down. the vacuum flies into her knocking her down, and hits the elevator door bouncing off breaking the cord, and stalling the elevator. They should have put it on youtube....

I heard of a lady who walked in the cab with a dog on a leash. She was not paying attention the dog walked out of the cab doors closed and took off up. The leash popped the interlock and the dog ended up in the pit. They said the dog was perfectly fine but the owner was really shakin up. She blamed the elevator saying it did not work correctly.

essentially the builders didnt want to carry the long timbers up the stairs so they tried to cheat. They were were extremely lucky that when the lift stopped they were near floor level to get out.

Also had another call to 'stuck with' at an old lift with wedge clamp safety gear. We managed to rescue the passenger but it appears the fault was due to pidgeons nesting in the motorroom walking past the governor and getting sucked down thru the hole in the floor causing the pull effect like the actuation of the governor. Funny stuff with dead pidgeon in the pit.

Answering service called one time around 9 pm one night,
For entrapment call. they said lady was panicking. So in a mad dash
To beat the fire department there. Im driving like the road runner on speed.
Upon arrival there are two security guards at the door holding drinking straws that
Had been put together(make shift snorkel) said she calmed down once they piped in air to her. I could barely keep a straight face as I popped the lock to let
Her out. Funniest thing I had ever seen. Peace

LOL!! That's a good one... I'll have to pass this technique down to the security guards in our buildings.

I wouldn't of believed it either, but true story, I have a few interesting stories
But that's the funniest so far. Ill add more later. Peace

Scariest one I had. I was going to local hotel(15 stop) one Saturday night around midnight. Walked in building asked what was going on with elevator. Night desk lady said door was open on ten couldn't get it closed, told her ok, went to lobby noticed said elevator, was on one not responding. Went to ten, walked off elevator to see a drunk woman sitting on sill feet dangling into hoistway. I felt like I was talking a jumper off a ledge. After about ten minutes she finally got out of doorway, I had to call in reinforcements on that one. Scared the bejesus out of me... Peace....

Oleeightball had a very similar call 25 years or so ago. Guy was panicking and screaming that he was going to SMUFFACTE!!!! We kept asking him what??? Just to hear him yell he was SMUFFACATING in here. WE had tears in our eyes. Aint got no air.... To this day SMUFFACATE is used by one of the guys around here monthly.....

That's a hoot... Danzeitz I may have to borrow that one.

I got a call to come to a job and " check it out when you get here".
18 floors, front openings at every floor , rear opening at the bottom, top and about 4th landing. 500 FPM traction freight/ pass in a five car group.
A carpenter had 40 or so 16 foot 1x2 and 1x4 solid oak trim boards to deliver up to one of the upper floors, so they stuck them through the opened escape hatch, leaning them against the back facia above the car, in the hoistway. After they get it loaded down, one of them gets in, turns the car off hand and procedes to run up. My best guess was he failed to remember where the hand switch was when the noise started. The car ran up all the way to the floor where the next rear door was before the pile of wood caught the header and door track and pushed it mostly out the block wall and thankfully opened the interlock circuit. The facia above the landing was a mess. The car was racked pretty good and the upper part of the cab on the back did not look good either.
There was no blood in the car but there were splinters.
I did not get to see the passenger, but I was told he was okay and was taken by emergency persons to be checked out. I think he probably needed a change of clothing and a valium.