outrageous call stories

been a while since we did something like this.....So lets hear some good stories.

Just the other week I removed 17 high school students from a 2500lb car. Guess they thought it would be funny to see how many of them could fit. They were in there for a little less than an hour, needless to say the cab was a tad warm and a bit smelly.

I was told this story by another mechanic. We just took over a job from another company, the route guy had not made his first visit but did receive a call about a entrapment. When he arrived he went directly to the car first to see what condition the cab was in before he went up stairs. Car was out of floor level way over our 18'' policy. When he got to the machine room and opened the door to his surprise there was a guy inside. Turns out this guy was paying the previous mechanic a few bucks a week and would let him sleep in that machine room, the bum said the car was making one hell of a noise and he turned off the disconnect cause he could not sleep.

Before my time.... Pictures floating around our old shop of a trapped passenger in downtown. A coyote had somehow gotten in the car, no one wanted to let him out. The pictures I saw were through the escape hatch. Mr. Coyote did not look pleased at this photo op.

A few years ago I was sent to a trapped passenger call. Lady was inside for about 1 and a half hours. I arrived only to find the system completely on security on the group screen. I called to her through the hatch doors and told her to press the "door open" button.... Doors opened and she got out...Security Guard never said a word?

I've had this call before as well. They tend to look pretty embarased when the door open buttons works

I was called out to a shutdown at a University. The call description was "Doors won't close". I saw the doors were less than half open,I went to push the doors open to look for any obstructions and several Brazilian free-tailed bats (Dog-Headed bats) came flying from the door track. One colliding with my head. I was startled to say the least. At that point, I was unaware that the University bathouse had collapsed the previous evening. Approx 300,000 bats were displaced. As it turns out,when a bat becomes homeless, they are partial to elevator shafts. Makes sense, its dark and there are plenty of places for them to hang and cluster. I spent the next 3 days opening elevator shafts and assisting in the removal of a couple thousand bats. Not to mention the relentless batman theme song and jokes from coworkers.

babyblue, your call reminded me of a night call of one of coworkers. The call was at a hotel/convention center and roughly a dozen college cheerleaders where stuck between floors for about an hour. When he got there and released the girls, he described the heatwave coming out of the cab. My buddy is ex-Navy and a 30 year man in the business. He is not known to mince words. he said and I quote, "The girls were soaked with sweat. It was kind of sexy until the odor hit me. It smelled like I opened the sh*t-house door on a tuna boat"

I was on call when an overtime call came in for 1st National Bank in Downtown San Diego. 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, The Boss 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.

OK, I'm talking back in the 80s.
Had a hotel, kept getting shut downs apx. midnight, owner didn't want us out til morning (no non emergency o'time). Every morning elevator would be back running. This went on for 3 months, intermittently. Stayed with elevator on own time, nothing happen, finally stayed out of sight fooling elevator (it didn't know I was there). Then it happened, a local college kid would stop 1 elevator of a duplex (that's why it was intermittently reported), sneak a roll-a-way bed on top and sleep. Cleaned everything up in morning and left. Every night except when he saw me there.

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.