The sewer system is, unfortunately, regularly abused by the average person. Something about the metaphor of flushing the toilet and watching the contents disappear makes people think they can get rid of basically anything that way, which means that when you work in the sewer, you sometimes find some crazy things down there. Here are some of the strange things we’ve heard about people finding in the sewer.
Rolexes
We can’t imagine people are flushing these on purpose, but it does happen! We’ve heard of watches worth more than $70,000 being found in the sewers. Often, watches are left on a sink and then bumped into a drain or toilet by accident. Sometimes they’re flushed by angry partners trying to get revenge on a cheating spouse, and sometimes they end up there without anyone really knowing why.
Gold
Wedding rings are quite the common find in the sewer and in pipes and septic tanks. But we’ve also heard of nuggets of unrefined gold ending up in the sewer. How this happened, no one really knows. It is estimated, though, that in the sewers in America there might be over $13 million of gold and jewelry. If only it were easy to find and clean!
Alligators
The stories you hear about alligators in the sewer aren’t just made-up stories to scare children. This has actually happened. In 2006, a 300-pound alligator was found in a sewer in Texas, and people in New York have been reporting seeing alligators in their sewers for decades.
Thriving cannabis forest
In the state of Washington, there was once a cannabis forest found thriving in the sewer system. Over $100,000 of cannabis plants had taken root and were growing there without any human intervention.
Placenta
Quite disturbingly, there was once a town in Illinois that found it had a problem with placentae showing up in their sewer system. They never found out the cause, but the placentae looked as though they’d been removed by a professional doctor, as they still had umbilical cords attached, and the cords looked to have been cut with a scalpel.
Dinosaur fossils
No kidding! In Alberta, Canada, when some sewer workers were working on building a new housing development, they came across the bones of a dinosaur known as a Hypacrosauras.
Grenade
In the sewer of London, they once found a live grenade simply floating around down there. They turned it over to the police, who were shocked and made sure to impress upon the sewer workers how lucky they were that the grenade did not go off.
Call for septic services in Bethel, OH
We hope you’ve enjoyed our fun little post today, outlining some of the outrageous things people have tried to dispose of via the sewer system. If you’re having any issues with your own connection to your sewer or septic system, we hope you’ll give us a call today at Gullett Sanitation Services Inc. We’ve been providing septic services in Bethel, OH, for over 75 years, and during that time we’ve made our name by offering the most reliable and fairly priced septic services around. Give us a call and learn how we can help you!