Utility Challenged Public

[Locator5000]

What funny stories do you have?

My latest is the lady that wouldn't open the door.

I arrived on site for a fence locate, checked my prints, and found that I had a primary feeding through the side of the lot. When I arrived, the lady was bringing groceries into her house. She went inside and closed the garage door. By the time I was done checking prints, I heard dogs barking in the back yard. I knocked on the front door, and rang the doorbell twice. No answer, not even a "can I help you" through the door. I located up to the fence line, and knocked and rang the bell again, announcing "utility locator." Keep in mind, my company truck was parked in direct view from her front window and door.

I got no response, and saw a rottweiler through the crack in the fence, so decided it was against my best interest to go back there. I took a few pictures, including one of the dog, left a doorhanger, and left. I was over 2 miles away, when dispatch called me back to the house. The dispatcher said "the lady at the house wanted to make sure we were legit." Upon returning, she answered the door, never apologized, and seemed inconvenienced that she had to restrain her dog. Keep in mind, this is 2pm, bright and sunny, I'm wearing my vest and hat w/company logo, with the company truck out front...did she think I was a serial killer?! WTF, cablevine, wtf?

[FiosKing]

wow i would have refused to go back and said the ticket was complete as is

[ProfessionalLocator]

There are so many, where to start?

There was one where among the utilities marked was the CATV main down to the ped and a service drop. They lady arrived home as I was finishing and objected strongly to my marking the TV. She said she had paid to have it put in and she did not want my marking here lines. I explained that if that is the case she just got some free marks but she still did not like that. After I packed up she scuffed out my marks and threw away the flags.

The thing is she did not own the TV lines. The policy was if you wanted TV and there were no other services off that ped, and the main was beyond a certain length, you had to pay for installation but this did not give ownership of the TV equipment.

I made note of her scuffing out the marks and went on my way.

[paintitnow]

I have had homeowners come up to me telling me to get off their property even when in the row. I explained to them that the city,county,state owns it and . sometime no luck on a cable bore they didn't want me o mark their back yard up. I told them iwould be right back with the form. they askwhat form. I told them it is a form that states you the homeowner if refudsing me access to the easment theat the utlities own and that by doing this you will be taking the financial responsibilty for any damages that happen on your property since i was refused to chance too protect them. It works on some.

On a non utility one, i use to deliver flowers. i brought flowers to a woman. I guess her husband is a judge of something. the flowers are wrapped and we do not know who sent them. We picked up the flowers from hundreds of florist and delived them. She made me take the flowers to the center of the yard and unwrap them. check to see whose sent them. she wanted me to be the one to get blown up if there was a bomb in it.

[ProfessionalLocator]

I have had homeowners come up to me telling me to get off their property even when in the row. I explained to them that the city,county,state owns it and . sometime no luck on a cable bore they didn't want me o mark their back yard up. I told them iwould be right back with the form. they askwhat form. I told them it is a form that states you the homeowner if refudsing me access to the easment theat the utlities own and that by doing this you will be taking the financial responsibilty for any damages that happen on your property since i was refused to chance too protect them. It works on some.

On a non utility one, i use to deliver flowers. i brought flowers to a woman. I guess her husband is a judge of something. the flowers are wrapped and we do not know who sent them. We picked up the flowers from hundreds of florist and delived them. She made me take the flowers to the center of the yard and unwrap them. check to see whose sent them. she wanted me to be the one to get blown up if there was a bomb in it.

I was marking a couple houses and one was on the corner. The phone ped for the mains was in the yard nearest to the corner and the ped for the service drops on this small court was on the other side of the same yard. The lady in the house came out and told me that there had to be two peds in her yard so the government could listen to her. I had to disassemble two peds to show there was nothing but wires and connectors.

She was not wearing a tinfoil hat but I do believe that she was at least paranoid delusional, perhaps had schizophrenia.

[AULupstate]

When I worked Contract Locating (gas and electric) at least 2 to 3 times a day a homeowner would confront me to beg and plead not to shut off their service. I don't even know how many people told me their bill was paid.

Funny, very funny.

[Goldenboy]

Working on a 4 mile fiber project and getting to a spot where the fiber runs through farm country and goes for 2500 feet along a very disturbed mans property. There is already one fiber running there and they were adding another one. I was marking the existing fiber and the crazy guy comes flying up to me and pins me up against my truck and is threatening my life if I don't get off his property. I couldn't do anything but laugh which made him all the madder. After a while I really did think he was going to kill me so I called 911 and 4 county cops came out to settle the guy down. The cops would not let me locate the fiber at that time because the guy was just too mad. I did get on the property at a later time and quick marked it out before he saw me.

[yahoo]

wonder how mad he would have been to get that fiber cut bill???????

[Laurish]

Back when my company still located gas, I had to mark a house in one of our local high and mighty rich gates communities. The house I had to locate did not have a gas service, but did have a main in front. I went to the closest neighbor, where I've actually located from before, who happened to have a loud dog who did not look happy to see me. I knock and a woman answers the door. I explain who I am and what I need to do. Apparently, she was in the middle of a meeting and asked if I could give her a few minutes. No biggie. This was a few years ago so I had more patience for home owners. Fifteen minutes goes by and she finally comes back out and is suddenly uncomfortable about allowing me to go FIVE feet past the gate on her house to hook up to the gas. Needless to say, I was a little irritated. So I go about my business of attempting to locate the gas main off another house down the road with absolutely no luck.

In the end, I contacted the supervisor for the gas company in my area and explained the situation to him. His response was priceless. "Well lets get them on the phone and let them know we'll go ahead and shut their gas off if they won't let you locate it." Needless to say, an appointment was set up the next day with the husband... future ex-husband it seemed... to get access to the gas line.

[ProfessionalLocator]

Back when my company still located gas, I had to mark a house in one of our local high and mighty rich gates communities. The house I had to locate did not have a gas service, but did have a main in front. I went to the closest neighbor, where I've actually located from before, who happened to have a loud dog who did not look happy to see me. I knock and a woman answers the door. I explain who I am and what I need to do. Apparently, she was in the middle of a meeting and asked if I could give her a few minutes. No biggie. This was a few years ago so I had more patience for home owners. Fifteen minutes goes by and she finally comes back out and is suddenly uncomfortable about allowing me to go FIVE feet past the gate on her house to hook up to the gas. Needless to say, I was a little irritated. So I go about my business of attempting to locate the gas main off another house down the road with absolutely no luck.

In the end, I contacted the supervisor for the gas company in my area and explained the situation to him. His response was priceless. "Well lets get them on the phone and let them know we'll go ahead and shut their gas off if they won't let you locate it." Needless to say, an appointment was set up the next day with the husband... future ex-husband it seemed... to get access to the gas line.

Wow, I would love to get that kind of support from the client! Did with one client but that was it out of all of them.

I had one electric to mark where the primary crossed the fence line of a back yard. I needed to get in but it was a tall fence with several nasty dogs inside. The neighbors told me the guy was confrontational and threatening. His wife was home but she said she could not do anything without her husbands okay plus he kept the gate padlocked and would not let her have a key. It was summer and she wore a long sleeved blouse with a turtle neck which still did not cover all the bruises he had put on her. My foreman was useless and the client utility would do nothing so I kept the ticket open for a couple of weeks and closed it after the dig was done written up as no access to the area of construction. I also had a hammer in my belt hoping that guy would come out and try knocking me around.

[mls62976]

Recieved a locate to install a fence between two properties. Got out the truck to do the locate and ended up right in the middle of a property dispute. Turns out the house on the left didn't want the house on the right to put a fence on the property line. Of course the gas service for the house on the left ran right down the property line. After some arguing about me locating the the gas line I decide to leave. Called the local utility
manager to infom him of the situation. He said he was aware of the dispute and told me he would meet at the house with a crew to dig up the tap to shut off the gas service. That didn't make the homeowner on the left very happy and he called the cops. After the cops arrived and told the homeowner that he didn't have a choice about the fence and locate. He went inside very mad. He told the cops he didn't want me locating because he thought my spray paint was going to ruin his grass. That was the only time I have had a police escort to do a locate.

[sprayandpray]

I got called to an emergency locate a few months back and there were 3 gas trucks and a police car already there when I arrived. I got out of my truck and could hear a couple of big dogs in the back yard raisin' a ruckus and the gas men and cop were engaged in a pretty heated argument with a woman.
It seems the gas company was there to turn off the gas for non-payment , the gas meter was in the back yard and the woman was refusing to put her 2 Rottwelers in the house. The cop explained to the gas men that he could not force the woman to secure her dogs and she evidently knew this because she was being really smart mouthed with the workers. Finally the Foreman told his men to just go ahead and dig up the service at the main, located in the alley, and cut it off there. He calmly advised the woman of their intentions and told her any reconnection would probably involve her having to pay about $1500 plus her past due bill. The look on her face was priceless! She went into her house and came out with $600 cash and paid her bill in full. Moral : Don't screw with the gas co!

[Mke]

When I was working as a Meter Reader for the electric company, we always had people refusing to let us on their property. One home owner stopped me at his gate, and stated that I had no "right" to be on his property, and i told him that by his acceptance of the usage of the electrical meter, he gave permission for any represenative from the electical company permission onto his property. He pretty much told me to "F" off. I proceeded to walk to his neighbors house, and proceeded to read his meter over the 3' picket fence. He picked up an apple from the ground, and tossed it at me. He missed and broke his neighbors window.... it was hilarious.

People didn't realize, that if they refused to let us on their property, that the power company would "estimate" their usage, and that would usually constitute more then doubling the usage. Most times it would be about tripple of what it usually was. Then the power company would have to send their rep out once a year to take a base reading, and if they refused to let them onto their property, they would send the linemen out, and cut the service at the pole. I seen it happen twice. And like spray said, the hook up fees were a real eye opener.

mke

[mattm211]

When i worked for a cities water/sewer dept. the line there served the entire area with water broke and completely shut off water. The city had just enough water stored in the towers to serve for the day buy by night time about 80% of the city was going to have sprinklers going and so the city said we had to start cutting off people's sprinkler systems so they wouldn't use the water (since we all knew they wouldn't shut them off voluntarily) Not many people even noticed, but one lady saw my crew shutting of her sprinkler valve, by her meter, and came out screaming and hollering. Now, the crew supervisor was an old 60 year old ex-military guy that had more experience than higher ups (but he was actually real cool guy). Once this lady came out and actually called us Nazis! he called her a bitch and said there wasn't anything she could do about it. ....never heard from her again

I also had a family just buy a nice house in a new subdivision, unfortunately the house was right along the pathway where the put the new lines to run from phase 1 to phase 2. They said they already had to dig up the front yard 3 times and they were tired of it. I explained to them the concept of utility easement and that that section of land wasn't there's and if the company wanted to dig it up they could, they weren't happy at all, but that's the way it goes.

[Locator5000]

First locate of the day, about 7:30am, on a Monday no less...

I was parked on the street, cones out and everything. The property in question was odd in the sense that the phone, electric, and catv were front easement, and the gas main and services were in the back with no alley. However, there was a gas main that ran through the front as well to feed a nearby alley. Naturally, the best and easiest access point for the front gas main would be the first service into the alley, so I go trotting over there and hook my machine onto the tracer. Just as I'm walking away the garage door opened, and the lady that lived there saw me.

Normally, I'd have my vest on, but being a Monday morning, and me being half asleep it had slipped my mind to put it on, so here I am, walking off of her property wearing a black hoodie, with the hood on because it's cold, jeans and boots. I had my orange gloves on, but I doubt she noticed that.

I went about on my locate, and in the time it took me to locate that gas main, paint and flag it, this lady left her alley in her $50k SUV, and drove by my truck ssslllooowwwllllyy FIVE times, while on her phone. I knew what was going on, so at that moment it dawned on me that I should put my vest on...then I collected all my equipment, took my pictures, and sat in my truck and waited. Not to my surprise, about 5 minutes later there's a police tahoe behind me, he walks up and told me that the lady was paranoid and thought I was a prowler, and then after she saw that I worked for the utility company, she said I was trespassing and I didn't ask if I could get on her property (which meant walking two feet off of the alley to the gas meter, IN the easement). He chuckled and said "I have to make contact with you to make her happy, so...uh...have a good day."

All I could think was...wow, what are these people thinking?! I thought about eating my lunch in my truck parked down the street from her house...you know, for the fun of it