Urban Legends from the Workplace

[Sphexi]

I'm just curious to see what crazy stories or legends pop up at various companies, having worked at a few different types of businesses over the years, I've got some crazy ones. Keep in mind, I have no idea if these are true, just heard about them from someone who heard about it, and so on:

1) When I worked at Radioshack, supposedly there was a guy who got stabbed in the hand with a pen by a pissed off customer. It was some older gentleman who wanted to write a check, and the phone rang so the employee turned to answer it, and the gentleman thought he was being "abused" or something similar, so stabbed his pen into the back of the hand of the employee (he was resting it on the counter). This supposedly happened at the store I worked at, to someone that I never ended up meeting because he had since moved on. Nobody there had ever met him, it was just something they had heard from a previous employee, and so on.

2) At my current employer (which will remain nameless), there was supposedly a customer who had some sort of aircard for their laptop, and while in Italy (for unknown reasons), was waiting in line at a theater to see Lord of the Rings 3, and decided he would download over his aircard (a cellular device) the first two movies. He apparantly had pay-per-use service, not unlimited, so they charge 1 cent per kilobyte of download/upload usage, plus he was roaming internationally. The bill was something like $150k, that is $150,000...of which he paid half. Somehow I think this one is a bit inflated, but once again, I heard it from someone who swears he heard it from someone who saw the actual bill.


Any other absolutely unbelievable (and probably untrue) stories?

 

[TuxDave]

1. Two engineers disagreed on something and walked out to the parking lot to fight and settle it. Both of them were fired the next day. I kinda hoping that it's a true story.

 

[Sphexi]

Originally posted by: TuxDave
1. Two engineers disagreed on something and walked out to the parking lot to fight and settle it. Both of them were fired the next day. I kinda hoping that it's a true story.

What kind of engineers though, and what kind of fight? Were calculators involved, or was it straight up mechanical pencils?

 

[UberNeuman]

There's a Ghost! IN THE TOILET!!!!!

 

[TraumaRN]

Well...crazy stories...I have more than enough. I work in downtown Detroit in the emergency room as a nurse. Nuff said IMO. 😛

 

[UberNeuman]

Originally posted by: DeathBUA
Well...crazy stories...I have more than enough. I work in downtown Detroit in the emergency room as a nurse. Nuff said IMO. 😛

Any weird "removal" stories?

"oh, i don't know how that got in there - i must have slipped and fallen on it!"😀

 

[naldo]

At Home Depot they told me about some old guy that was mad because a tire he bought like 10 years ago didnt "wear well" and he wanted a refund and claimed that he bought the tire from Home Depot. A bunch of randomness ensues because home depot doesnt sell car tires but somehow the manager learns that the Home Depot was built ontop of an old Sears (which is why the old guy brought it there), and decided to give him his money back. Its supposed to preach good customer service, but I know everyone who has ever worked at home depot (or any retail store for that matter), knows the customer just would have been asked to leave right off the bat.

Theres also ones they tell you about little girls getting crushed by random things that arent properly put away (to make you feel bad about not putting something away), at one store it was an interior door, at another it was a stack of wood, and at the other it was a grill that fell off the racking, and another about a drunk/high/on medication person who drives a forklift into the racking and causes an entire aisle full of stuff to fall down and kill/injure a bunch of people (they tell you this one if you dont put your little safety gates up).

 

[Dr. Detroit]

Always about sex/afffairs in the workplace at the professional services firms I have worked at.

So and so married his intern.

So and so was banging his assistant, they paid her off, and moved her to a different office. Irate wife shows up at the workplace screaming and threatening.

Never witnessed it, have met some of these people, but not like I'm gonna ask em if it's true or not.

 

[TraumaRN]

Originally posted by: UberNeuman

Originally posted by: DeathBUA
Well...crazy stories...I have more than enough. I work in downtown Detroit in the emergency room as a nurse. Nuff said IMO. 😛

Any weird "removal" stories?

"oh, i don't know how that got in there - i must have slipped and fallen on it!"😀

Only a potato so far...😛

Remember given where I work I tend to see more of the guns, knives, cars etc type stuff...

Weird death story was one of our frequent alcoholics came into resus(resuscitation) and we probably coded/worked on him for almost 2 hours. His core body temperature when he arrives was TWENTY THREE DEGREES CELSISUS(about 73 degrees Fahrenheit)

By some crazy fate his heart still had a rhythm...well alternating between ventricular fibrillation and pulse less electrical activity...basically his heart wasn't pumping blood but the fact that it had ANY activity at all was amazing because standard medical literature says that the heart cannot function below about 85 degrees Fahrenheit...not to mention he was still breathing a couple times a minute on his own. All in all he was clinical dying if not dead upon presentation but we had to follow the warm and dead rule, so we warmed him up and THEN his heart stopped beating and breathing stopped.

Kinda defied medical literature when he initially came in but it was interesting nonetheless if not creepy as fvck to have someone that cold still be breathing. The brain is incredibly resilient at low temps like that.

 

[Sphexi]

Originally posted by: naldo
At Home Depot they told me about some old guy that was mad because a tire he bought like 10 years ago didnt "wear well" and he wanted a refund and claimed that he bought the tire from Home Depot. A bunch of randomness ensues because home depot doesnt sell car tires but somehow the manager learns that the Home Depot was built ontop of an old Sears (which is why the old guy brought it there), and decided to give him his money back. Its supposed to preach good customer service, but I know everyone who has ever worked at home depot (or any retail store for that matter), knows the customer just would have been asked to leave right off the bat.

Theres also ones they tell you about little girls getting crushed by random things that arent properly put away (to make you feel bad about not putting something away), at one store it was an interior door, at another it was a stack of wood, and at the other it was a grill that fell off the racking, and another about a drunk/high/on medication person who drives a forklift into the racking and causes an entire aisle full of stuff to fall down and kill/injure a bunch of people (they tell you this one if you dont put your little safety gates up).

I got those last stories too, it actually did happen at one store like, 10 years ago, but I don't think anyone died. I've also heard about whole loads of lumber coming off the side of a truck that was improperly unloaded (too much taken off one side, the other side tipped and dumped). Never seen it myself, but while unloading trucks I have had them tip like 30-40 degrees because of the way they were stacked.

 

[LS20]

people think that im mortal

 

[purepolly]

Two most bizarre within past 3-4 montshs

1. Patient bit off his own finger. Ummm ... finger food anyone?
2. Patient in for ingestion of coins... lots of them.

 

[Sphexi]

I actually found this one on Snopes, not really a legend as they have pictures, but still funny. Realistically though, stores aren't allowed to load that much stuff onto a vehicle, since if some of it came loose then they'd be held liable for any injuries/damage caused from it flying off the car. Also, that's about 1/3 a bunk of OSB, and about as much 4x4s, that's easily 3500-4000lbs, not including the 800+ worth of concrete in the back seat (supposedly). I'm surprised the car was even moving.

 

[timswim78]

There is a hidden staircase where swingers do the naughty.

 

[Rastus]

The septic tank at a factory where I worked was supposedly full of used condoms.

 

[Steve]

At one place I worked, allegedly someone's ex-husband showed up with a gun a few years prior. No shooting though, it was said to be handled peacefully.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

True: A new hire at my company, fresh out of college. An engineer mind you so should be smart. Put a dead snake in his co-workers soup which was bought at the Aramark that our company as. At first Aramark was blamed. In the end it was discovered that the new engineer was to blame. The new guy was fired from his first job out of college after several months of employment. This one is actually true!

Urban Legend: Probably somewhat common. Parking is hard to get at work. A new employee "stole" a parking spot from an older employee. The kid gets out and says, I'm young and fast. The older employee rams the young guys car and responds, "I'm old and have money". I think this is an urban legend.

True: A co-worker/friend said that many years ago, during a snow storm a car parked near him had a driver laugh at him because he had a rear wheel drive Mustang and said "Have fun getting that home". The guy that laughed at him started his car to warm up while he cleaned the ice off. Both finished getting the ice off at the same time. As my friend was leaving, he smiled and waved at the insulter. Why? The guy locked his keys in the car while the car was running. My friend would have helped, but not after the joke was made. My friend drove off, leaving hte guy to fend for himself.

 

[TallBill]

There are so many that its not even funny.

 

[Bateluer]

True: An Airman that worked at my workcenter a few years ago used to rest his genitals on the output port of a TACAN RT. That output port is capable of putting out lethal RF doses. His logic in doing this was to sterilize himself before going out to get laid on weekends. About a year ago, the same airman got in contact with an NCO at the workcenter. Seems he developed testicular cancer and was trying to sue the AF for compensation.

 

[Sphexi]

Originally posted by: Bateluer
True: An Airman that worked at my workcenter a few years ago used to rest his genitals on the output port of a TACAN RT. That output port is capable of putting out lethal RF doses. His logic in doing this was to sterilize himself before going out to get laid on weekends. About a year ago, the same airman got in contact with an NCO at the workcenter. Seems he developed testicular cancer and was trying to sue the AF for compensation.

LOL! I shouldn't laugh, but it's so pathetic it's kind of funny. He knew better yet he still did it, not like when my grandfather was in the military, they used to jump in front of microwave transmitter dishes for a second or two to warm up in the winter, they just didn't know how dangerous it was.

 

[OulOat]

Originally posted by: DeathBUA

Originally posted by: UberNeuman

Originally posted by: DeathBUA
Well...crazy stories...I have more than enough. I work in downtown Detroit in the emergency room as a nurse. Nuff said IMO. 😛

Any weird "removal" stories?

"oh, i don't know how that got in there - i must have slipped and fallen on it!"😀

Only a potato so far...😛

Remember given where I work I tend to see more of the guns, knives, cars etc type stuff...

Weird death story was one of our frequent alcoholics came into resus(resuscitation) and we probably coded/worked on him for almost 2 hours. His core body temperature when he arrives was TWENTY THREE DEGREES CELSISUS(about 73 degrees Fahrenheit)

By some crazy fate his heart still had a rhythm...well alternating between ventricular fibrillation and pulse less electrical activity...basically his heart wasn't pumping blood but the fact that it had ANY activity at all was amazing because standard medical literature says that the heart cannot function below about 85 degrees Fahrenheit...not to mention he was still breathing a couple times a minute on his own. All in all he was clinical dying if not dead upon presentation but we had to follow the warm and dead rule, so we warmed him up and THEN his heart stopped beating and breathing stopped.

Kinda defied medical literature when he initially came in but it was interesting nonetheless if not creepy as fvck to have someone that cold still be breathing. The brain is incredibly resilient at low temps like that.

But if the cells are still alive, why can't doctors revive someone who has been dead for an hour? Because once the cells have been without oxygen for more than five minutes, they die when their oxygen supply is resumed. It was that "astounding" discovery, Becker says, that led him to his post as the director of Penn's Center for Resuscitation Science, a newly created research institute operating on one of medicine's newest frontiers: treating the dead.

This might be why

 

[pontifex]

um...if its true, its not an urban legend...😕

 

[amish]

so an intern got a little too freaked and stressed out so she decided to commit suicide in one of the coat closets. nobody noticed till the next day.

 

[TraumaRN]

Originally posted by: OulOat

Originally posted by: DeathBUA

Originally posted by: UberNeuman

Originally posted by: DeathBUA
Well...crazy stories...I have more than enough. I work in downtown Detroit in the emergency room as a nurse. Nuff said IMO. 😛

Any weird "removal" stories?

"oh, i don't know how that got in there - i must have slipped and fallen on it!"😀

Only a potato so far...😛

Remember given where I work I tend to see more of the guns, knives, cars etc type stuff...

Weird death story was one of our frequent alcoholics came into resus(resuscitation) and we probably coded/worked on him for almost 2 hours. His core body temperature when he arrives was TWENTY THREE DEGREES CELSISUS(about 73 degrees Fahrenheit)

By some crazy fate his heart still had a rhythm...well alternating between ventricular fibrillation and pulse less electrical activity...basically his heart wasn't pumping blood but the fact that it had ANY activity at all was amazing because standard medical literature says that the heart cannot function below about 85 degrees Fahrenheit...not to mention he was still breathing a couple times a minute on his own. All in all he was clinical dying if not dead upon presentation but we had to follow the warm and dead rule, so we warmed him up and THEN his heart stopped beating and breathing stopped.

Kinda defied medical literature when he initially came in but it was interesting nonetheless if not creepy as fvck to have someone that cold still be breathing. The brain is incredibly resilient at low temps like that.

But if the cells are still alive, why can't doctors revive someone who has been dead for an hour? Because once the cells have been without oxygen for more than five minutes, they die when their oxygen supply is resumed. It was that "astounding" discovery, Becker says, that led him to his post as the director of Penn's Center for Resuscitation Science, a newly created research institute operating on one of medicine's newest frontiers: treating the dead.

This might be why

Well thats fine and dandy but his blood alcohol level was .495 if I remember correctly 😛

He had more than the cold working against him.

 

[OulOat]

Originally posted by: DeathBUA

Originally posted by: OulOat

Originally posted by: DeathBUA

Originally posted by: UberNeuman

Originally posted by: DeathBUA
Well...crazy stories...I have more than enough. I work in downtown Detroit in the emergency room as a nurse. Nuff said IMO. 😛

Any weird "removal" stories?

"oh, i don't know how that got in there - i must have slipped and fallen on it!"😀

Only a potato so far...😛

Remember given where I work I tend to see more of the guns, knives, cars etc type stuff...

Weird death story was one of our frequent alcoholics came into resus(resuscitation) and we probably coded/worked on him for almost 2 hours. His core body temperature when he arrives was TWENTY THREE DEGREES CELSISUS(about 73 degrees Fahrenheit)

By some crazy fate his heart still had a rhythm...well alternating between ventricular fibrillation and pulse less electrical activity...basically his heart wasn't pumping blood but the fact that it had ANY activity at all was amazing because standard medical literature says that the heart cannot function below about 85 degrees Fahrenheit...not to mention he was still breathing a couple times a minute on his own. All in all he was clinical dying if not dead upon presentation but we had to follow the warm and dead rule, so we warmed him up and THEN his heart stopped beating and breathing stopped.

Kinda defied medical literature when he initially came in but it was interesting nonetheless if not creepy as fvck to have someone that cold still be breathing. The brain is incredibly resilient at low temps like that.

But if the cells are still alive, why can't doctors revive someone who has been dead for an hour? Because once the cells have been without oxygen for more than five minutes, they die when their oxygen supply is resumed. It was that "astounding" discovery, Becker says, that led him to his post as the director of Penn's Center for Resuscitation Science, a newly created research institute operating on one of medicine's newest frontiers: treating the dead.

This might be why

Well thats fine and dandy but his blood alcohol level was .495 if I remember correctly 😛

He had more than the cold working against him.

Well, you did say he died once he warmed up. In the article, it mentions that hypothermia may be a good thing. But like I said, it MIGHT be why.