When it comes to backed up pipes and drains, common causes of clogs that come to mind are: hair, food, debris, toilet paper and grease. From time to time, plumbers are called in to remove specific valuables that were accidentally dropped into the toilet or washed down the drain. Curious as to what the strangest things plumbers have ever removed from plumbing pipes? We’ve put together a list of the 10 craziest and most random things plumbers have found in pipes and drains.
1.) Bar Of Gold
Yep. A whole bar of gold valued at $40,000 was found in one couple’s plumbing, in Canada. The homeowners had apparently “misplaced” the bar of gold a few years prior to the extraction, begging the questions: “How does one simply ‘misplace’ a $40,000 bar of gold?” “Why did it take them so many years to find it?” And, “How did the gold end up in in their plumbing system in the first place?”
2.) Lots And Lots Of Cash
Legend tells of a bank robber that hid in a Starbucks bathroom after his heist. After the cops caught the man, the toilet stopped working and flooded the restroom. The plumber who was called to the job snaked the drain and pulled out hundreds of dollars in cash. We can only assume the bank robber started to stash his loot before he was apprehended by the authorities. His choice of hiding places (for both himself and the money) lead us to believe he wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed.
3.) Brand New Cellphone
We agree, it’s easy for a phone to fall out of your back pocket and into the toilet—so what makes this find bizarre? When the plumber in this story was called to the house, the homeowner explained he had dropped his phone in the toilet while flushing. What the man failed to mention was that the phone was a brand new, unwrapped, still-in-the-box iPhone 5s. How this fit down his toilet drain, we will never know. But the happy ending is the phone was in perfect working condition when he opened it.
4.) Diamond Engagement Ring
A lady in Arizona called a plumber into a local restaurant after accidentally flushing her diamond ring down the toilet. Maybe her fiance misread her ring size or perhaps she was just a clumsy flusher. Regardless, the ring was worth $70,000! The plumber reported that job required the removal of several pipes, the use of an infrared camera and took a grand total of eight hours to complete. The woman was ecstatic after the successful job.
5.) Cannon Shell
A Civil War cannon shell that dated back to 1861 was found by plumbers in a home in Mississippi. The homeowners had absolutely no idea how the shell had ended up in their plumbing system. The plumbers quite literally saved the day, in this story, because the cannon shell was still live! Allow us to reiterate… a live Civil War cannon shell was taking up residence in the couple’s plumbing system!
6.) Snake
Okay, so this one wasn’t actually removed by a plumber because an expert snake wrangler needed to be called to the job. While vacationing in Australia, one unfortunate man opened the lid of his toilet to find a giant 12-foot-long python coiled up inside the bowl. Luckily, the man saw the python before he sat and was able to call in an expert to remove the beast. Pythons are not venomous though, so the only way the man’s life would have been in danger was if the python had started to coil around his body.
7.) Poker Chips
A man in Atlantic City joined an open “No Limit Texas Hold’em” poker tournament with a pocket full of fake poker chips that totaled $2.7 million. Throughout the games, he swapped out the fake poker chips for real ones, but only left the tournament with a little more than $6,000. Worried that he would be caught with the remaining fake chips, he decided to flush them down the toilet in his hotel room. As you may have guessed, the chips clogged the pipes, a plumber was called in, and the not-so-smooth criminal was arrested.
8.) Purple Easter Egg
When their toilet stopped flushing, a family in California called in a plumber to assess the problem. When the plumber started to work his inspection camera down the drain, he heard a crack. What came to the surface was a purple-dyed Easter egg that their 5-year-old daughter had flushed down the toilet. Talk about best hiding place ever for that Easter egg hunt!
9.) Pair Of Dentures
A plumber was called to a local airport after reports of an overflowing toilet. Apparently, wallets, toilet paper and cellphones are the most common causes of clogs in airport restrooms. On this day however, the plumber pulled out a pair of false teeth. But where was the sad, gummy soul who had lost his chompers? Nobody knows! No one had complained of losing the dentures and no one ever came to claim them.
10.) Alarm Clock
