Reader’s Digest Details 14 Shocking Things Plumbers Found In Pipes And Sewers
The next time you meet a plumber, ask him to tell you about some of the strangest things he has seen on the job. We guarantee you’ll hear some interesting tales you’ll want to share with friends. When Reader’s Digest contacted Roto-Rooter recently asking us to tell them about some of the weird things found in sewers and pipes by our plumbers, we were only too happy to share our favorite photos and stories with their writer, Lisa Marie Conklin.
Lisa contacted a few other plumbing companies besides Roto-Rooter and compiled a fun article entitled “14 Shocking Discoveries Plumbers Have Found in Pipes.” The article started off like this: “If you think pulling a hairy ball of gunk out of your shower drain is gross, wait till you see what these plumbers found! Don’t worry, they’re not all disgusting – in fact, some stories are quite heartwarming.”
The article’s first example was quite heartwarming and it hit close to home for us since it involved a Roto-Rooter employee in Columbus, Ohio who rescued a kitten that had been trapped inside an underground pipe: “Auto shop employees often listen for sounds to diagnose problems, but a kitten stuck in a pipe meowing in distress isn’t something they usually hear. This group of guys heard meows for days before discovering they were coming from an open underground pipe outside the shop. After different agencies tried to rescue the kitten to no avail, the employees were in the process of trying to dig up the pipe when they saw Roto-Rooter driver Kevin Adkins drive by. They flagged him down, and Adkins was able to gently suck the kitten out of the pipe using the lowest setting on the vacuum truck. The kitten was adopted by one of the mechanics at the auto shop.”
Just to be clear, Kevin didn’t suck the kitten through the vacuum hose and into the truck’s vacuum tank. Instead, he used a narrow hose that the kitten couldn’t fit into. The force of the vacuum was just strong enough to hold the kitten securely to the mouth of the hose long enough to pull the kitty out of the deep vertical pipe.
Besides our kitten story, the Reader’s Digest article mentions tales of wild animals who found their way into pipes but were unable to escape. Also, plumbers have found valuable jewelry inside pipes, toys, cell phones, dentures and more. If you would like to read the entire article, go here. And if you’d like to watch a CNN news story about the amazing Columbus kitten rescue, visit the Animal Rescues page on our website.