Isn’t it kind of funny to think that plumbers will often find more than just waste and water in your drains? Over the years, plumbers have been finding and reporting all kinds of wild and ridiculous objects, personal items, and even living creature in the drains of homes and buildings.
So where do people get the idea that flushing phones, toys, live animals, and narcotics is a good thing? Personally, we have no idea, but what we will say is that these incidents do make for some really fun stories to be shared with friends and family. These stories are sure to make you laugh, gag, and even get a little afraid of what other people are thinking when they decide to flush some of these things. These stories are truly baffling and totally fun to share, though it’s probably best to leave the toilet talk away from the dinner table.
1) A Squirrel
Can you even possibly fathom that someone would flush a live animal or an animal carcass down the toilet? After reading this story, you may find it a little more believable. One plumber named Larry reported that he had found a dead squirrel in the toilet piping of a house. He said that judging by the location of the squirrel, it must have climbed down through a vent pipe in the roof and got stuck on the way down. Apparently, it was to stuck to climb back up the pipe and the pipe was too narrow to turn around. Since he was stuck there for quite a while, the squirrel was very bloated when it was removed.
2) Bags of Marijuana
Now most of us have seen the movie scene or the TV show where someone get into a desperate situation when they are in possession of drugs. That scene is usually followed with someone disposing of the drugs by trying to flush them down the toilet. Well apparently, that isn’t just for the silver screen. It’s a disposal method that happens in real life too. Someone must have decided a little too late that taking marijuana onto an airplane wasn’t a good idea. A plumber went on a call for a clog drain in an airport bathroom, and it made him chuckle to find a disposed bag of marijuana in the drain. He says that the airport has a lost and found, but he’s pretty sure that no one is going to go back to claim it.
3) A $10,000 Bracelet
You must have made one of the biggest mistakes of your life or have a ton of money to make this next mistake. It is hard to imagine that plumbers have found expensive jewelry that has been flushed down the drain. Fortunately in this incident, this was a total accident. One plumber got a call from a woman who had lost her expensive charm bracelet down the. When the plumber came onto the scene, the woman was crying and talking to the housekeeping staff about it. She said that one of the clasps was coming loose, and it must have fallen off into the toilet when she was using the bathroom. Then the auto-flusher went off twice. She was sure that it was gone for good. She was aso worried that her husband would be frustrated when he found out that the $10,000 + bracelet was flushed down the toilet. Thankfully, the plumber was able to detach the toilet and retrieve the bracelet from the pipes. He even cleaned off the bracelet with soap and water before he returned it.
4) Diamonds
If you thought a charm bracelet that cost as much as a car was a shocker to find in the toilet, the meaning of this next piece of jewelry may even be more shocking. When a plumber got a call about a $7,000 engagement ring that got unintentionally flushed down the toilet, he knew that his work was cut out for him. Using a fiber optic sewer camera and a coat hanger, the plumber was able to retrieve the gorgeous engagement ring successfully. What’s funny is that the husband actually complained about the price of the plumber, but his wife was happy to pay it and give him a good tip.
5) False Teeth
This was another funny and mysterious call from the bathrooms at the airport. The airport called a plumber about a clogged toilet in the men’s bathroom. The plumber assumed that it would probably be the usual, expecting to find too much toilet paper, the occasional wallet, or maybe even a cell phone that fell to its watery grave. Much to his surprise, he came to find that someone had lost a pair of dentures down the drains. We can’t imagine that after you lose your teeth down the toilet that you would ever want them back. The plumber then went to hang them in the maintenance closet next to a pair of sunglasses that were also lost down the drain, at one time.
6) Brand New Cell Phones
It is actually pretty astounding the number of cell phones and smartphones that plumbers will find in the toilet. I guess the new version of reading the paper on the john is flipping through your newsfeed on social media or using a reading app to pass the time. Can you imagine how awful it would be to lose a cell phone that is worth hundreds of dollars down the drain?
One plumber reported that he got a call about a clogged drain. He wasn’t sure what to expect or what he was dealing with, so he got out his handy sewer drain camera. After thoroughly inspecting the drain and finding nothing, he began to dismantle the toilet to dig a little deeper. To his shock, he had found a brand new iPhone 5s. It was fully boxed, and still wrapped in its plastic packaging, so he imagined that the new, unopened phone would still be intact, unharmed, and in total working condition.
It’s not just new phones that are flushed though. Plumbers get calls all of the time about finding used phones that have been accidentally flushed down the toilet.
7) A Family Photo in a Bag of Sea Shells
This next story is a little more oddly specific. One summer, a plumber got a call from a novice plumber who needed some help. A toilet was clog and likely needed to be removed from the floor and the wall to find out what was stopping it up. They ended up finding a bag of gathered sea shells with a family photo inside. It was most likely taken by a family who was on their summer beach vacation. The question still remains though, how the heck did that end up in the toilet?
The plumbers turned the bag into the lost and found, so I guess we will never know.
8) Syringes
When sad and unfortunate thing that a lot of plumbers find in the toilet are medical syringes. Most plumbers believe that the people who are using them and flushing them are inconvenienced or embarrassed by not having a biohazard bin to use while traveling, so they just end up flushing them down the toilet instead of throwing them in the trash can. Thankfully, most plumbers use special clasping devices when plumbing, so that they can keep their hands and bodies safe. They also stay up to date on their vaccines and testing so that they can prevent the transmission of diseases.
9) Other Animals
Would it shock you to know that the squirrel that we mentioned earlier isn’t the only animal that has been found in toilet plumbing before. Here is a short list of some of the most interesting animals that plumbers have found in drains before
- Iguana
- Snakes
- Cats
- Turtles
- Goldfish
Now some of the reptiles and the goldfish make sense as to how and why they would get in the toilet. Although, you are probably wondering the same thing we are. How did a cat manage to flush itself down the toilet? That’s just another plumbing mystery that the world may never know.
10) A Military Mortar Shell
Have you ever heard of the awful prank where someone throws firecrackers into a toilet to blow it up? Well, this is the more extreme version of that prank situation. In Nashville, a plumber reported finding an un-exploded ordinance, also known as a mortar shell, that had been flushed down someone’s toilet. Thankfully, the mortar itself was not dangerous or functional, but that still begs the question of “who thought it was a good idea to flush a mortar shell down the tubes?”
11) A Bar of Gold
This is going to sound shocking, but it is totally true. Two Canadian plumbers actually found a gold brick in the pipes of someone’s home. Apparently the gold brick had been misplaced by the homeowners a few years ago, but here is the hard part to imagine. The gold brick was valued at over $40,000. So if one gold brick wasn’t that big of a deal to them, their home must be flushed with gold bricks.
1) A Squirrel
Can you even possibly fathom that someone would flush a live animal or an animal carcass down the toilet? After reading this story, you may find it a little more believable. One plumber named Larry reported that he had found a dead squirrel in the toilet piping of a house. He said that judging by the location of the squirrel, it must have climbed down through a vent pipe in the roof and got stuck on the way down. Apparently, it was to stuck to climb back up the pipe and the pipe was too narrow to turn around. Since he was stuck there for quite a while, the squirrel was very bloated when it was removed.
2) Bags of Marijuana
Now most of us have seen the movie scene or the TV show where someone get into a desperate situation when they are in possession of drugs. That scene is usually followed with someone disposing of the drugs by trying to flush them down the toilet. Well apparently, that isn’t just for the silver screen. It’s a disposal method that happens in real life too. Someone must have decided a little too late that taking marijuana onto an airplane wasn’t a good idea. A plumber went on a call for a clog drain in an airport bathroom, and it made him chuckle to find a disposed bag of marijuana in the drain. He says that the airport has a lost and found, but he’s pretty sure that no one is going to go back to claim it.
3) A $10,000 Bracelet
You must have made one of the biggest mistakes of your life or have a ton of money to make this next mistake. It is hard to imagine that plumbers have found expensive jewelry that has been flushed down the drain. Fortunately in this incident, this was a total accident. One plumber got a call from a woman who had lost her expensive charm bracelet down the. When the plumber came onto the scene, the woman was crying and talking to the housekeeping staff about it. She said that one of the clasps was coming loose, and it must have fallen off into the toilet when she was using the bathroom. Then the auto-flusher went off twice. She was sure that it was gone for good. She was aso worried that her husband would be frustrated when he found out that the $10,000 + bracelet was flushed down the toilet. Thankfully, the plumber was able to detach the toilet and retrieve the bracelet from the pipes. He even cleaned off the bracelet with soap and water before he returned it.
4) Diamonds
If you thought a charm bracelet that cost as much as a car was a shocker to find in the toilet, the meaning of this next piece of jewelry may even be more shocking. When a plumber got a call about a $7,000 engagement ring that got unintentionally flushed down the toilet, he knew that his work was cut out for him. Using a fiber optic sewer camera and a coat hanger, the plumber was able to retrieve the gorgeous engagement ring successfully. What’s funny is that the husband actually complained about the price of the plumber, but his wife was happy to pay it and give him a good tip.
5) False Teeth
This was another funny and mysterious call from the bathrooms at the airport. The airport called a plumber about a clogged toilet in the men’s bathroom. The plumber assumed that it would probably be the usual, expecting to find too much toilet paper, the occasional wallet, or maybe even a cell phone that fell to its watery grave. Much to his surprise, he came to find that someone had lost a pair of dentures down the drains. We can’t imagine that after you lose your teeth down the toilet that you would ever want them back. The plumber then went to hang them in the maintenance closet next to a pair of sunglasses that were also lost down the drain, at one time.
6) Brand New Cell Phones
It is actually pretty astounding the number of cell phones and smartphones that plumbers will find in the toilet. I guess the new version of reading the paper on the john is flipping through your newsfeed on social media or using a reading app to pass the time. Can you imagine how awful it would be to lose a cell phone that is worth hundreds of dollars down the drain?
One plumber reported that he got a call about a clogged drain. He wasn’t sure what to expect or what he was dealing with, so he got out his handy sewer drain camera. After thoroughly inspecting the drain and finding nothing, he began to dismantle the toilet to dig a little deeper. To his shock, he had found a brand new iPhone 5s. It was fully boxed, and still wrapped in its plastic packaging, so he imagined that the new, unopened phone would still be intact, unharmed, and in total working condition.
It’s not just new phones that are flushed though. Plumbers get calls all of the time about finding used phones that have been accidentally flushed down the toilet.
7) A Family Photo in a Bag of Sea Shells
This next story is a little more oddly specific. One summer, a plumber got a call from a novice plumber who needed some help. A toilet was clog and likely needed to be removed from the floor and the wall to find out what was stopping it up. They ended up finding a bag of gathered sea shells with a family photo inside. It was most likely taken by a family who was on their summer beach vacation. The question still remains though, how the heck did that end up in the toilet?
The plumbers turned the bag into the lost and found, so I guess we will never know.
8) Syringes
When sad and unfortunate thing that a lot of plumbers find in the toilet are medical syringes. Most plumbers believe that the people who are using them and flushing them are inconvenienced or embarrassed by not having a biohazard bin to use while traveling, so they just end up flushing them down the toilet instead of throwing them in the trash can. Thankfully, most plumbers use special clasping devices when plumbing, so that they can keep their hands and bodies safe. They also stay up to date on their vaccines and testing so that they can prevent the transmission of diseases.
9) Other Animals
Would it shock you to know that the squirrel that we mentioned earlier isn’t the only animal that has been found in toilet plumbing before. Here is a short list of some of the most interesting animals that plumbers have found in drains before
- Iguana
- Snakes
- Cats
- Turtles
- Goldfish
Now some of the reptiles and the goldfish make sense as to how and why they would get in the toilet. Although, you are probably wondering the same thing we are. How did a cat manage to flush itself down the toilet? That’s just another plumbing mystery that the world may never know.
10) A Military Mortar Shell
Have you ever heard of the awful prank where someone throws firecrackers into a toilet to blow it up? Well, this is the more extreme version of that prank situation. In Nashville, a plumber reported finding an un-exploded ordinance, also known as a mortar shell, that had been flushed down someone’s toilet. Thankfully, the mortar itself was not dangerous or functional, but that still begs the question of “who thought it was a good idea to flush a mortar shell down the tubes?”
11) A Bar of Gold
This is going to sound shocking, but it is totally true. Two Canadian plumbers actually found a gold brick in the pipes of someone’s home. Apparently the gold brick had been misplaced by the homeowners a few years ago, but here is the hard part to imagine. The gold brick was valued at over $40,000. So if one gold brick wasn’t that big of a deal to them, their home must be flushed with gold bricks.
