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As the title, what’s the strangest thing you’ve come across in a customer’s vehicle that you’ve worked on? I’ve had plenty of full sets of ladies underwear kicking around in cars i.e. basques with the stockings attached LOL, but the best one had to be a live albino python in the boot! (trunk for you USA techies)
Seen quite a few sex toys etc too :sick: 😆
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I found a 1 gallon ziploc bag full of pot in the glovebox while looking for the stupid wheel lock.
also had a good looking girl that had fuzzy handcuffs in the back seat of her truck.
Nothing even comes close to some of the things you other guys listed, wow! Found lots of dead and alive mice in all sorts of spots, a family of a momma mouse and 6 babies behind the air filter of a Uplander van, was setting a fuel trim code, no wonder, them and all the shit they had for a next along with it. Once they were removed the fuel trim problem went away.
Also have found them inside. Had a vehicle come in complaining about a smell and rumble when the blower motor was on high. Well Mr Mouse decided to have a nap in the blower motor until he succummed once the thing was turned on full blast and couldn’t escape in time. Looked and smelled like he was in there for quite some time. Nearly tossed my cookies from the smell of it, and it was like a 90 degree day.
I know there’s more but just can’t think of them off the top of my head right now.
Just had this today an 06 tahoe came infor an oil change and when I went to check the air filter the airbox was filled with dog food. something had been storing food there.
Anyone ever turn away a customer because you find stuff like this?
i.e. Say something along the lines, “we don’t do business with drug dealers?”
Why would you do something like that? We’ve had a war on drugs for decades with nothing to show for it except billions wasted in courts and prisons and cops. People want to get high. They still get high. That isn’t going to stop. Weed is no harder to get than beer in every town in the US. I used to have my own shop and I saw more than a few drug dealers. Once I did well for one I got the business of a lot of others. Here’s what my experience was.
They pay in cash and don’t debate the bill. Like anyone else in a legit business, they need that car running reliably to make their money. Oh, and did I mention they pay cash?
They are people just like anyone else. Some people grow up on the right side of town, have a sense for business and end up on Wall Street fleecing all the taxpayers when their deals go bust and their company needs to be saved as they are getting a multi-million dollar bonus to go with their multi-million dollar salaries. Dope dealers don’t ask us to pay billions for their mistakes in business. If they go under financially its on them.
Drug dealers provide a service the same as your local plumber, electrician and gas station do. If you don’t need what they are selling thats all it is. My pipes are working just fine in my house, so I don’t need a plumber. I don’t use drugs, so I don’t need a dope dealer. But I know if I was one of the millions of people who do have need of that service it is available.
I had a few customers here and there who were obviously users. They didn’t pay their bill yet thought they could take the car anyhow. One call to my dealer customers and I found out who the supplier was. They told me they would handle it. Next thing I know these people went from trying to rip me off to paying their bill for services rendered and taking their car. Dope dealers find a trusted mechanic, they will not allow anyone to try to start shit with them and will collect money for you faster than any small claims court will.
I’m guessing you grew up in a nice neighborhood and have never seen what is happening in this country at a street level. Just because someone has a criminal record doesn’t mean he is a bad person or cannot be trusted. I would do business with a drug dealer over a banker any day. I trust them farther. They provide a service, and if people didn’t want that service they wouldn’t be in business. Don’t believe the crap on TV, drug dealers don’t make you take drugs. They would be fools to try to push it on someone who doesn’t use it already. If they did someone would call the cops and they would go to jail! Would that make any sense? They sell to people who use drugs. Your local gas station doesn’t try to convince amish people to buy cars, do they?
I have only once done an extensive amount of work to a drug dealer’s car only to have him get arrested before picking it up. I kept the car for a month until one of his associates came to tell me about it and to pay me himself. They could’ve left me hanging but didn’t because I had a good reputation with them. Thats a lot more integrity and decency than I see from plenty of other customers that live a “proper” lifestyle.
I didn’t have a shop in the best area of town, yet never once did anyone attempt to break into the building or any of the cars in the parking lot. I know its because the dope dealers put the word out that bad things would happen to anyone who was foolish enough to touch my shop. They did far more for me than the police department ever could.
So don’t look down on someone for his method of earning money. I personally would feel safer in a room full of drug dealers carrying guns than a room full of cops carrying guns. I get along with the former better than the latter. Like I said, they are people too.
I appreciate your input, and I am NOT saying all drug dealers are bad people. Nobody has EVER tried to sell me drugs on the street…
Perhaps it is the way I dress, the way I talk, the car I drive, and the people with whom I associate and the places we hang out. I don’t know, but I do know that I size people up and get judged myself. That said, I would refuse to “knowingly” do work for a drug dealer, but I would NOT rat them out or call the police; it’s their choice… I would NOT search a car to look for drugs or anything like that, but if I happen to come across them, I would basically finish the agreed upon service, get paid, and tell them that I no longer want their business until they change their ways. I am NOT going to help someone continue to run an illegal business.
I also would NOT want a shop that is known in the hood and protected by gangster security… I would rather the shop be in a nicer neighborhood, protected by the police, etc.
I have been very fortunate. I grew up with wonderful parents, whom I love and deeply respect. They taught me to be a man, to provide for my family, to be honorable to my word and NEVER make a promise without standing behind it! I was taught morals. It is often NOT about the money but the concept in something. Neither of my parents were extremely wealthy or rich, but they did just fine because they are both smart and willing to do what it takes to provide. My mother owned her own business cutting hair and is now a school librarian because she loves making a difference in the lives of young children. My father supervised the refueling of nuclear powered submarines and is now retired. The point is NOTHING was ever given to my parents who both worked to provide for us in our “nice” neighborhood! Now, I am 29 years old and live in a nice neighborhood surrounded by people who are teachers, doctors, nurses, military, contractors, bankers, lawyers, and other professionals… You MUST be of a certain age, make three times the outrageous rent, have a clean criminal background, and have good credit to live in my neighborhood, but I feel safer here knowing that this community keeps people out. They KNOW if they show up that within a matter of minutes the police will be here to escort them off the premises.
To get to where I am at, I went to college for six years and got a decent job. I work hard doing ethical work to keep with my standard of living and keep myself (and others) safe. I respect anybody who works an honest job to provide!
Please just don’t judge me and think that because I come from a decent neighborhood that somehow I got everything given to me.
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I will say that one of the things I lost along the way is the value of the dollar empathy and understanding for others.
I am NOT rich or wealthy by any real standards, but I have no fear that I will eat, that ALL my bills will be paid, that there will be money for fuel etc. I can go spend $600 for tires and don’t have to save for months to make that type of purchase… And spending $60 on an oil change now is easier than it was paying about $15 with a coupon back when I was in College and oil was $1.25/qt.
The friends I hang out with are like me. We never show up to a party empty handed and often take turns being gopher to bring back take-out food never accepting pay. i.e. If I go run and get pizza, all my friends in the group try to hand me their $5… I don’t want it. Similarly, when they go fetch Mexican and I try to pay my portion, they won’t take it. It is just different than when I was in college. Back then I would have happily let someone else pay or NEVER offered up front to pay simply because I didn’t have ANY excess in money.
Now, it is no big deal to any of us… it is just different to not struggle. My worries now are about projects, deadlines, meetings, exceeding standards, obtaining proper metrics, security, etc…
In 1996 while working at a GM truck dealership. We had, “Grandma” as she was known to everyone, bring in her 1995 full size van. Grandma’s days were spent carting around kids from the church where her husband was the minister. She had six with her this day and was dropping the van off to have the driver side seat replaced. Being a vip customer they gave her a loner and off she went. We were told her husband would be picking up the van later.
So I pulled it into the shop got out and turned around to look under the seat. Well, there I found some pretty red lace panties and a hand full of polaroids. The bad part was the girl in the photos along with the minister was not grandma. Thank goodness.
A quick look by my fellows partners in crime and it was back to work. After the seat was replaced I questioned if I should put the stuff back under the seat. Fearing one of those kids would find it. So I got a big envelope from the office girl and put everything inside. I left the package with the office girl and told her the guy was going to pick the van up later and to give it to him.
Well, guess who went home early, office girl, AND guess who came to pick up the van, grandma. I didn’t hear that anything happened that night, but a few years later that minister was in the news for giving to much spiritial help to a young lady.
Never know what ya don’t want to know until you’ve worked on someones car!
Dirty diaper in driver side door, hidden gun in holster with extended clip sticking out under driver side dash, drugs strapped under dash passenger side pills pot etc.. Dead rat floorboard old camaro. Tweekers car absolutely trashed pop tarts dirty socks dust and filth all over inside of the car had to replace a shifter cable. Smokers car bottles of pop full of water spit and ash. Animal farm bobble heads on dash took a video of that! I have tons of picks of customer repairs and trashed vehicles and stories to go with them.
2004 Honda civic hybrid that the rear seats had been removed so the owner could haul chickens. There was chicken poop and feathers everywhere, of course i was working in the backseat area of the car.
Not much strikes me as strange anymore, but some notable finds:
Machete under the driver seat
Painkillers, marijuana, and syringes all in the same glove box
Jumbo tie-dye unicorn riding in the back seat
Sex dice and all other contents of a college girl’s dorm room
Chinese restaurant’s food supplies for the week spoiling (restaurant depot is across the street)
Entire litter of live baby mice in a blower motor
Three (thankfully) no-longer-occupied black widow spider egg sacs spun between the hood and intake manifold
[quote=”nickwarner” post=52441]Why would you do something like that? We’ve had a war on drugs for decades with nothing to show for it except billions wasted in courts and prisons and cops. People want to get high. They still get high. That isn’t going to stop. Weed is no harder to get than beer in every town in the US. I used to have my own shop and I saw more than a few drug dealers. Once I did well for one I got the business of a lot of others. Here’s what my experience was.
They pay in cash and don’t debate the bill. Like anyone else in a legit business, they need that car running reliably to make their money. Oh, and did I mention they pay cash?
They are people just like anyone else. Some people grow up on the right side of town, have a sense for business and end up on Wall Street fleecing all the taxpayers when their deals go bust and their company needs to be saved as they are getting a multi-million dollar bonus to go with their multi-million dollar salaries. Dope dealers don’t ask us to pay billions for their mistakes in business. If they go under financially its on them.
Drug dealers provide a service the same as your local plumber, electrician and gas station do. If you don’t need what they are selling thats all it is. My pipes are working just fine in my house, so I don’t need a plumber. I don’t use drugs, so I don’t need a dope dealer. But I know if I was one of the millions of people who do have need of that service it is available.
I had a few customers here and there who were obviously users. They didn’t pay their bill yet thought they could take the car anyhow. One call to my dealer customers and I found out who the supplier was. They told me they would handle it. Next thing I know these people went from trying to rip me off to paying their bill for services rendered and taking their car. Dope dealers find a trusted mechanic, they will not allow anyone to try to start shit with them and will collect money for you faster than any small claims court will.
I’m guessing you grew up in a nice neighborhood and have never seen what is happening in this country at a street level. Just because someone has a criminal record doesn’t mean he is a bad person or cannot be trusted. I would do business with a drug dealer over a banker any day. I trust them farther. They provide a service, and if people didn’t want that service they wouldn’t be in business. Don’t believe the crap on TV, drug dealers don’t make you take drugs. They would be fools to try to push it on someone who doesn’t use it already. If they did someone would call the cops and they would go to jail! Would that make any sense? They sell to people who use drugs. Your local gas station doesn’t try to convince amish people to buy cars, do they?
I have only once done an extensive amount of work to a drug dealer’s car only to have him get arrested before picking it up. I kept the car for a month until one of his associates came to tell me about it and to pay me himself. They could’ve left me hanging but didn’t because I had a good reputation with them. Thats a lot more integrity and decency than I see from plenty of other customers that live a “proper” lifestyle.
I didn’t have a shop in the best area of town, yet never once did anyone attempt to break into the building or any of the cars in the parking lot. I know its because the dope dealers put the word out that bad things would happen to anyone who was foolish enough to touch my shop. They did far more for me than the police department ever could.
So don’t look down on someone for his method of earning money. I personally would feel safer in a room full of drug dealers carrying guns than a room full of cops carrying guns. I get along with the former better than the latter. Like I said, they are people too.[/quote]
a customer is a customer, and a good one is even better. what they do in their own personal time is their business. Ive had plenty of drug dealers cars, and it doesn’t bother me one bit. i guess that other guy just doesn’t like to make money.
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