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djslater

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Work update....So I got a work order in today from one of the case managers from a program at the residential treatment facility that I work at. She said that this particular youth reported a strong smell coming from the heat register. They assumed that a mouse had found its way inside of the unit. Upon further examination, I removed the cover and discovered that this particular youth decided to use his heat register as a urinal!!! There was a huge pool of yellow piss sitting inside of the radiator causing the whole hallway to reek!!

 

After donning some gloves and a bit of bleach the problem was taken care of.

 

Heat + Urine = worst smell ever! 

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Last summer I got my first job (i'm 16) pulling wrenches for a school bus fleet that has 600 units, one of the worst jobs was replacing mufflers, I had to shimmy under the bus (I didn't own a creeper at the time Big Mistake) and then fight with the bolts to get them off and then beat the living crap out of it with a hammer to slide it off the turbo pipe and then beat it the other way off the exhaust the whole time laying on my back sporting 45 pounds (a third of my weight) of muffler on my knee caps, getting covered in carbon deposits and then having to hold the new one for 15 minutes trying to shimmy it it the pipes and then finger-painting muffler cement on the ends and clamping them on, one day I had to do 2 in a row. I came out so dirty you could grease an axle with my face.

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Sam...everyone has 1 or two jobs in their life that you come away saying "man I cant imagine doing this for the rest of my life" Mine was shortly after graduating college. I was expediting commercial and residential construction permits all across the country. After sitting behind a desk for a year trying to navigate through all of the governmental red tape and bs that is permitting I quit. All to become a maintenance dude for a DCFS organization. They pay sucks but man I love my work. Find an occupation that you enjoy and you will be the richest man on earth. (besides finding Jesus of course)

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I actually loved the job (except upper management) made the best of it and invested in some tools to help with mufflers, I would work at another heavy duty shop in a heart beat, and will probably pursue it as a career.

 

But yes the reason mechanics need huge tool chest is because there is always a tool that shortens the time to do a job, or makes it so that there is less grunt work.

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sam when I first started at the shop I bought a mac rolling tool box with and thought that was all I was gonna need and now almost 7yrs later I have a big boy box from snap on with most of my mechanic tools/gadgets a med size rolling tool box with my air tools and now we turned my mac cart into the bondo/sandpaper cart and im just a body repair and painter there lol!! love my job though ;)

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About 2 months ago we had a job at a abandoned psychiatric hospital in southeast DC (The Ghetto). Upon arriving in the neighborhood bordering the abandoned campus there was a man laying in the street bleeding with a ambulance just arriving on scene. Then we continued onward to find the job site and this sign, now we didn't know this job was at a abandoned building, OR a abandoned mental hospital either. 

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So after seeing that sign and being able to make out the majority of "psychiatric hospital" we got a little bit nervous....

 

Just a little bit of history of the saint elizabeths hospital...  It was known as "The government hospital for the Insane" and opened its doors in 1855, it even had a civil war battle fought on the campus grounds with both union and confederates buried in shallow graves. It was eventually shut down due to horrible living conditions and overcrowding.

 

Our job was to remove the antennas, coax, and any other equipment on the roof of the building from a cell phone carrier which you can see in these pictures.

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The first day it was just us four electricians, we had to find a route to the roof and establish a way of removing the equipment. Shortly after arriving we noticed all sorts of drug paraphernalia around with other litter and homeless people walking from the surrounding woods into the building. (Not particularly what you want to see before going in) What we found out is that that building acts as a shelter for anyone who is desperate. Crackheads, drug dealers, and thugs. Then our escort arrived and he gave us the rundown of what he was going to do. He told us he was just here to cut the lock on the door and leave, he refused to come in after us or guide us in the building. He also told us "Take this new lock with you otherwise they'll lock this door and come in from another entrance to rob and kill ya'll" Once again another great thing to hear before going into a abandoned building infested with desperate crackheads... Then we went in the basement armed with headlamps and any heavy objects we had on the truck. (Pipe bender, Spud Wrench, and Big screwdriver) After stumbling around in the pitch black basement for a half hour we found a stairwell and started walking up. What was really sketchy is that  on every floor there was some time of sign of who "ran" that floor like a jacket, or a tag on the door, etc. Finally we got to the top floor, and after exploring found a ladder that seemed safe enough to make the 30 ft climb to the roof. After we did a couple hours of work we noticed a white truck pull up by the woods, and 5 guys popped out of a hatch that leads to the underground tunnels that connect the campus. They pulled rolls and rolls of feeder cable probably 4/0 - 500 kcmil gauge. Well over a couple thousand in scrap copper. 

 

Heres some pics from the first day:

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The next day we had around 10 guys on the site to help finish the work. And we found a interesting room...

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This is a room filled with rocks that are sorted by shape, color, and size. They are carried up 7 stories from ground level, washed in buckets filled with rain water, and put out to dry in window sills before being sorted onto these light fixtures. Also written all over the room is the word "Brahma"  which is a hindu god... And a couple of these sweet tv glass shanks!

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Thats about all I can say or care to type out.

 

Reply with any questions and Ill answer them as best I can.

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That's all they do in Detroit is look buildings for scrap metal. A few times karma caught up with them and the building collapsed or they hit a live wire and cooked themselves. It's really bad that's why any work in Detroit isn't done with copper plumbing anymore they use pex because it has no scrap value. The only thing is electrical I wouldn't want a home with aluminum wiring its just too dangerous to mess around with so copper is the only option for that. They would probably still take the aluminum wire anyways. They strip aluminum doors, siding and trim off houses too. Its freaking another world down there. I hope you got paid well on that job Jordan at least. I think I would rather climb a cell tower than crawl through that building. I'm not a heights kind of guy either. I will say I handled a bucket lift better than my friend he got super freaked out when we got pretty high. I think for me its more ladders I don't like doing the transitioning from a ladder to a roof and vice versa and any edges with out railings kinda freaks me out.

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That's all they do in Detroit is look buildings for scrap metal. A few times karma caught up with them and the building collapsed or they hit a live wire and cooked themselves. It's really bad that's why any work in Detroit isn't done with copper plumbing anymore they use pex because it has no scrap value. The only thing is electrical I wouldn't want a home with aluminum wiring its just too dangerous to mess around with so copper is the only option for that. They would probably still take the aluminum wire anyways. They strip aluminum doors, siding and trim off houses too. Its freaking another world down there. I hope you got paid well on that job Jordan at least. I think I would rather climb a cell tower than crawl through that building. I'm not a heights kind of guy either. I will say I handled a bucket lift better than my friend he got super freaked out when we got pretty high. I think for me its more ladders I don't like doing the transitioning from a ladder to a roof and vice versa and any edges with out railings kinda freaks me out.

Ha paid well, not in the cell industry haha. But I like the variety of work, never a dull moment. For sure I am better off than most other 18 year olds right now either working in McDonalds or acquiring college debt.

 

Yeah the rumor we heard was any scrap they find they take down to the tunnels to strip or stash, then  find a buddy with a vehicle and when its all ready they pick a spot to load it up and drive off. The buildings we were in were stripped from feeders all the way down to 18ga control wiring. In the basement you could see 6" rigid pipes that they cut with a hacksaw to try and get the feeders out. Desperate people do crazy stuff.

 

And like I've said, I used to be absolutely petrified of heights, but once you get up there the first time and have both hands working and you feel the harness cradle you its a big step. Once you trust the harness its a different world!

 

 

Cell Tower Documentary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVgKA8PZgUc

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Jordan, will your employer allow you to carry? I know it is a scary concept but when working in sketchy areas with tweakers around you might want to make sure you are safe as possible. (had a friend that was attack while working in an abandoned warehouse)

No we are not allowed to carry any weapon Company policy prohibits that... But our project manager did show up (has a 12 ga in his truck) but he wouldn't go in the building haha. Besides a gun wouldn't have helped but the biggest worry was someone with a needle or knife that has something on it. Doesn't matter if u kill the dude if he pops outta the dark and gets one stab with a aids needle. We definetly could have had that happening. We had one guy walk up behind us and tell the last guy in the group that he almost killed us. FUCKING crazy

I also forget to mention in the first post that they had literally booby traps when opening doors. First a light fixture would fall down in the doorway and then there was broken glass all over the doorway. There is a video from inside that two guys took where u can see them falling. I'll try to get it.

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