Discuss weirdest site experiences in the UK Electrical Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

Got me started now, I did my apprenticeship for a small contractor in Bath, and as you may or may not know Bath has some beautiful Georgian buildings, the sort of work we were involved with was repairing the electrics in some these houses, along with other normal jobs.
I must have been about 18 and was sent on my first solo job, replace a door bell I think, anyway these house had dirty great big front doors (Adams Family style) got there knocked the door and I could hear the owner hobbling along the corridor, door opened with lots of creaking and there stood the spit image of Boris Karloff (he of the early horror movies) scared the brown stuff out of me, needless to say fastest repair I ever did. Oh by the way Bath trounced Leicester yesterday just in case you're interested.
 
During my apprenticeship I was doing some work in house and the customer pointed to a door and said don't go in that room. Any way the customer went out and my gaffer told me to open the door and take a look. As an eager apprentice I obliged opened the door to find a load of birds freely flying around, bird cr@p everywhere, twigs hanging of the curtain rail.
 
Again on my apprenticeship. We was doing the electrics on an extension and my gaffer told me to go switch some of the circuits off. Went in to the room where the DB was, it was low level in the far corner off the room. I crouched down found the circuits I wanted,knocked them off and then went to stand up when I heard a dog growl behind me, any way needless to say I stayed down on the deck turned round and the biggest Rottweiler I've ever seen was standing there staring at me :uhoh2:. I gave it a couple of strokes then went to stand up again, dog was having none of it and started growling again and gave me a tap with its paw, every time I tried the same thing happened. Ended up comando crawling over to the door and stood up and bolted out the door at the 1st given opportunity. I didn't tell the gaffer what had happened and let him go and switch the circuits back on, the story repeated itself but with him instead lol:teeth_smile:
 
Not a site experience, but just the other day, I stumbled upon a a massive pink real looking vibrator and lots of lube next to this birds bed whilst going round the house with my meter when doing a cu change, she was out at the time so naturally I gave it a good sniff... Just kidding I didn't sniff it!
 
Not a site experience, but just the other day, I stumbled upon a a massive pink real looking vibrator and lots of lube next to this birds bed whilst going round the house with my meter when doing a cu change, she was out at the time so naturally I gave it a good sniff... Just kidding I didn't sniff it!

maybe it was her way of calling it on? Lol :teeth_smile:
 
maybe not weird, but once did this rewire for a widow ( about 70). 1st day there, lifted the bedroom carpet to get the boards up, and it was literally underlaid with loads of ÂŁ10 and ÂŁ20 notes between the carpet and the underlay. must have been 5K+. fetched the old dear up to see, and she said " so that's where the old sod hid all his cash" ( meaning her late departed). she then said. " that's it. i'mm off th spain next month , and here's ÂŁ100 of it for you, for being honest".
 
Not a site experience, but just the other day, I stumbled upon a a massive pink real looking vibrator and lots of lube next to this birds bed whilst going round the house with my meter when doing a cu change, she was out at the time so naturally I gave it a good sniff... Just kidding I didn't sniff it!

I bet you did give it a sniff lol. :tongue:
 
Dead bodies do nothing for me, unless they've gone off.

I had one old chap die in front of me once, well it wouldn't be more than once I suppose.

But, when working in a hospital, its nothing like the apprentice hospital porter trick they used to do to the poor old b****rs who were commissioned to take dead bodies down to the mortuary.....

You know where this one is going and it really did sort out those who could cope with the idea of death and of course those subsequent sudden resurrections...
 
When my sister was doing her training as a nurse in A&E she had a bloke come in with a vacuum cleaner attachment broken off up his backside.
 
Not a funny story but more of weird place to be, we got the job of fitting new electric UFH to padded cells in Ashworth Hospital (think broadmore) we had to make a tool list, count them in, count them out and heaven forbid if you forgot anything from the van it was a half hour trip to get in and out due to security, we had to be escorted everywhere and it a really strange place to be, patients walking in circles in the hallways etc. One lad lost a screwdriver and couldn't leave until it had been found, he found it in the end, he dropped it inside a wall.
 
When my sister was doing her training as a nurse in A&E she had a bloke come in with a vacuum cleaner attachment broken off up his backside.

A nurse I went out with told me of of ai bloke coming into A&E with vacuum cleaner hose attached to his John Thomas excuse was he was hoovering and he slipped. Hoovering in the nude my arse.
 
that reminds me of the case of the suicide in the mersey. bloke was wearing high heels and suspenders, a banana stuck up his arse and an orange duct taped over his mouth. he was also wearing a man.utd. shirt. to save his family embarrassment, police removed the man.utd. top.
 
Not a funny story but more of weird place to be, we got the job of fitting new electric UFH to padded cells in Ashworth Hospital (think broadmore) we had to make a tool list, count them in, count them out and heaven forbid if you forgot anything from the van it was a half hour trip to get in and out due to security, we had to be escorted everywhere and it a really strange place to be, patients walking in circles in the hallways etc. One lad lost a screwdriver and couldn't leave until it had been found, he found it in the end, he dropped it inside a wall.
Had exactly this scenario (apart from loosing anything lol) at a secure mental unit in Scotland. We were doing fire alarms in micc. Great job - But as well as the counting in and out of any tools ect we also had to sign a disclaimer or whatever you call it which basically stated that if you did leave something behind and a patient used it to harm himself or others it would amount to YOU being the one charged with the assault (Well not the assault but very close to it)...and you would be the one in court as the patients were not responsible.
Funny place though - huge it was and we were there ages. Patients wandered about the grounds freely ect. You never knew who you were talking to staff/patient/visitor lol.
We used to get one guy come up and ask us for our empty pop bottles so he could return them for the 10p or whatever it was then....Trouble was he was never allowed out of the grounds so his attempts at this were futile...not that we could ever think of giving him a glass bottle anyway ...shudder to think lol.
The was also a part of the "hospital" for people who were not criminally insane....same rules don't leave stuff lying around ect...one of the guy's who had absolutely no morals ended up having an affair with one of the continued suicide threats when she got out....week later she was back in having had another go at slashing her wrists....Dirty bugger he was.
The one thing that stands out in my memory was the fact that the place had them old fashioned radiators which got so hot that they actually could burn your skin.....One of the patients in the secure side used to strip off and climb ontop of one of them and sleep naked on it...until staff came along and carted him off...again, he literally did this daily ffs.
To be fair I think back and some of the staff were "worse" than the patients they were looking after lol.
 
Not a funny story but more of weird place to be, we got the job of fitting new electric UFH to padded cells in Ashworth Hospital (think broadmore) we had to make a tool list, count them in, count them out and heaven forbid if you forgot anything from the van it was a half hour trip to get in and out due to security, we had to be escorted everywhere and it a really strange place to be, patients walking in circles in the hallways etc. One lad lost a screwdriver and couldn't leave until it had been found, he found it in the end, he dropped it inside a wall.

Was the same system in a place I worked. This place housed patients of all scopes, from people who just talked to themselves at bus stops to disturbed killers.
There was an "airlock" on entry where all procedures had to be followed before the second door would open, two of which were the counting in and out of tools and a daily body and clothing frisk on entry. This was all a pain in the proverbial but I could understand the reasons.
One day we were in the airlock and a guy knocked on the outside door. The staff buzzed the door open and let him through both airlock doors into the facility.. no search.. no book to sign..no questions.
As he waltzed through he cheerily exclaimed "There's me change", dumped some money on the counter and waved a twix bar at the staff.
"Who was that then that he doesn't have to be searched ?" we asked.
"Oh that's one of the patients"
"What ?"
"Yeah we give him money for the bus and he pops into town and does a bit of shopping"
"But how do you know he just brought a twix bar in ?"
A blank, non comprehending stare accompanied the answer "Because that's all the receipt says and the change is correct"
"So he couldn't have picked up a piece of glass or metal from the waste ground outside then ?"
"Oh no don't be silly, he's one of the good 'uns"

Unreal. We still had to be searched on every entry to the facility, even if just popping to the van, or after lunch break, or even standing out for a cig in full view of the reception staff.
 
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Yes same thing with the airlock, one day we was passing through and the door didn't open because of an patient scare, never mind the patient I was scared thinking we was trapped!
 
Yes same thing with the airlock, one day we was passing through and the door didn't open because of an patient scare, never mind the patient I was scared thinking we was trapped!

Yeah we got trapped in our place a couple of times. Every corridor had mag locked doors every 20 yards or so. These were operated by our swipe card weilding chaperone. Kick offs led to us being held in corridors between doors until things had been dealt with. Dealt with generally meant a bundling into a padded "chill out" room for the feisty patient for half a day's reflection.
 
Wierdest experiance was discovering rat racing taking place in a lab !

The lab was an animal testing facility and not many people would agree to work in there. You have to have your tools disinfected going in which was a nightmare and you had to strip and shower via an airlock before entering the place. Your clean overalls were on the other side of the airlock, so you walked through naked into the next changing room.

On entering on the 1st day I dont think they were expecting me and as I went into one of the labs 3 rats shot past my feet and out the door I had just come through. Needless to say I didnt jump up on the table or anything, but I had never seen anything so funny as 6 people trying to catch these escaped rats before they got anywhere else in the complex ! :)
 

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