5 Craziest Things Found in a Sewer

From 15-ton lumps of food fat to $20,000 in cash, drain cleaning and pipeline inspection contractors have unearthed some pretty amazing things.
5 Craziest Things Found in a Sewer
It took three nights for an eight-man crew to clean up and remove a 15-ton "fatberg" using shovels and waterjetting.

Interested in Cleaning?

Get Cleaning articles, news and videos right in your inbox! Sign up now.

Cleaning + Get Alerts

Usually when you lower cameras into sewers and slide down manholes, it’s fairly predictable what you’re going to find, but sometimes you stumble across some crazy — and sometimes scary — underground finds. 

You all have a story to tell about the out-of-the-ordinary objects recovered from pipelines and sewers. Here are some of the most off-the-wall discoveries drain cleaning and pipeline inspection contractors have found: 

1. Bus-sized lump of fat. Yes, you read that correctly. A crew in England removed a 15-ton lump of food fat and wet wipes — dubbed the “fatberg” — from a sewer line.

It took three nights for an eight-man crew to clean up and remove the mound using shovels and waterjetting.

Read more about the 15-ton "fatberg." 

2. Slithery creatures. We recently posted a blog about a nest of 12 snakes discovered during a CCTV inspection by a contractor in Wenatchee, Wash.

Take a look at the CCTV footage supplied by the contractor. The snakes appear around the 3:15 mark as the camera tilts to the left.

3. Money and jewelry. These two treasures are probably some of the best things to find — this blog includes both. A cleaning crew in England found a pot of gold jewelry — necklaces, rings, watches and earrings. In Florida, a plumber came across $20,000 in foil-wrapped packs of cash.

Find out why these examples highlight the value of honesty and deservedly cast a positive light on contractors and municipal workers.

4. Sleeping quarters. OK, this isn’t really a discovery, per se, but it’s still pretty cool. Repurposed drainpipes formed a newly designed hotel in northern Austria. Dasparkhotel is a “collection of five freestanding cylindrical rooms made from repurposed metropolitan drainage pipes.”

Take a look at these underground sleeping quarters.

5. People. This is a more somber discovery. An emergency crew in China was called to an apartment complex last year in Jinhua City, Zhejiang province, after residents reported hearing a baby’s cries coming through the toilet drain in their fourth-floor apartment. Crew workers pulled a two-day-old baby from a 4-inch drainline.

Read more about this near fatal story.

Think you can beat a bus-sized lump of fat? What’s the craziest thing you’ve found in a sewer line or manhole? Post a comment below.



Discussion

Comments on this site are submitted by users and are not endorsed by nor do they reflect the views or opinions of COLE Publishing, Inc. Comments are moderated before being posted.