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Plumbing + Get AlertsUsually 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.
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.