Kittens, Diamonds and Prosthetic Eyes, Oh My! ( PRNewswire )
CINCINNATI, Dec 27, 2004 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- If plumbers rewrote the
song, "The 12 Days of Christmas," it might go something like this ... 4 baby
kittens, 3 tree roots, 2 diamond rings and one prosthetic eyeball.
In fact, each year Roto-Rooter technicians retrieve, and rescue, some of the
strangest items ever recovered from modern day plumbing. Over time, these
stories have become company urban legends of sorts, with the sizes and
quantities of these items growing with age.
To set the record straight, America's Neighborhood Plumber(R), took to the
phones collecting stories from across the country from plumbers in the field.
With the help of modern-day technology, Roto-Rooter plumbers were able to
capture some of these rescues via fiber optic camera, which can snake into tight
areas to record these abnormal assignments.
The result was a laundry list of items ranging from animals to precious
valuables. Of those items listed, five stories in particular gained popularity
in their respective communities.
The Roto-Rooter Rescue Round up
1. A Slippery Situation
Grass Valley, Calif. -- A four-foot python, a new family pet, slithered into the
bathroom and seemingly disappeared. The family called pest control people, the
fire department and others, but couldn't get anyone to help. Finally, they
called Roto-Rooter after they learned how they use fiber optic cable cameras to
inspect pipes from the inside. Chris Navo of Roto-Rooter went to the home and
inspected the pipes with the camera, but couldn't find the snake. Finally, he
noticed an access hole beneath the sink vanity, so he fed the fiber optic camera
into the access hole. He quickly located the snake beneath the floor of the
vanity. It was clearly visible on the video monitor. The owners used a mouse to
lure the snake out of its hiding place.
2. Keep Your Eye on the Prize
Chicago, Ill. -- Roto-Rooter technician Lev Yampolskiy was dispatched to a
residence in Glenview on Wednesday afternoon. The customer reported that her
husband lost his prosthetic eye, valued at nearly $5,000, down his bathroom sink
drain. Water pressure had pushed the eye past the safety trap and deep into the
home's plumbing system and perilously close to the end of the line -- the city
sewer junction. Roto-Rooter arrived and inserted a special miniature camera down
the pipe and eventually located the eyeball. The technician had to find a way to
recover the eye without causing damage to it. He finally found a creative
solution and used the robotic camera and slow running water to inch the eyeball
toward an access valve where it was finally pulled free. The recovery process
took more than two hours, but now the eyeball is clean and back in its socket.
3. Pipe Dreams
Jacksonville, Fla. -- A stray kitten was seen playing around some electrical
boxes behind a Jacksonville strip mall. Women who work in a nearby beauty shop
saw the kitten fall into an electrical conduit pipe, slipping several feet below
ground. The women could hear his cries but they were unable to see him or reach
him. They tried fashioning a ladder out of towels in hopes that the kitten could
claw his way back to the surface. It didn't work. Fortunately, the wife of a
Roto-Rooter manager visited the beauty shop that day and overheard the women
talking about the kitten's plight. Tonya Mathis phoned her husband Bart at
Roto-Rooter. Bart and a crew of technicians responded and fed a lighted camera
scope into the pipe and quickly located the kitten deep inside the conduit
network. Using the cable camera, Bart was able to coax the kitten into following
the camera's light to a tap line that reached the surface. The Roto-Rooter team
then used a saw to cut the plastic pipe open and free the kitten. The kitten had
been stuck in the pipe for four days!
4. Diamonds ARE Forever
Dayton, Ohio -- Geraldine Offill was in the bathroom, when her precious diamond
slipped off her finger and into the toilet bowl. Despite her husband's belief
that the ring was lost and not knowing what to do she called in the experts. The
voice on the other end of the phone ensured that there would be two technicians
on the way. Not even thinking of her grandson Travis and how he had just started
his new job as a Roto-Rooter technician, she was surprised to greet him at the
door. Travis King, the Offills' grandson and service technician Aaron Paul
searched the not-so-pleasant insides of the bowl without success. However after
taking the toilet apart, he found Offill's prized possession lying in a bundled
heap of good fortune. While the story of the missing diamond isn't one that
Offill and her husband want to remember fondly, she is delighted the diamond is
right back where it should be -- adorning this overjoyed grandmother's finger.
5. A different kind of root
Boston, Mass. -- Deep in the dark depths of a Boston Church, Roto-Rooter
technicians were called to remove what was believed to be a large black root.
However, upon further inspection they revealed that it wasn't a root at all...it
was an actual clump of human hair, more than eight feet long! The collection had
accumulated over several years and took the technicians more than an hour to
remove. Nobody in Boston remembers seeing such a large mass of human hair in any
pipe!
Other stories like this can be found on the Roto-Rooter website
rotorooter.com .
SOURCE Roto-Rooter
CONTACT: Adam Selwyn, +1-312-228-6846, cell, +1-773-220-9512, adam.sel
yn@ketchum.com , or Am
Danis, +1-312-228-6894, cell, +1-630-664-5577, amy.danis@ketc
um.com , both for
Roto-Rooter
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