For service technicians, each day is an adventure — they never truly know what is waiting for them on the route. Could it be...a homeowner up to no good? a woodland creature? a run-away lawn tool?
We asked service pros, "What is the craziest thing you have found in a swimming pool?" Read on to hear some of the more bizarre finds.
"I went to a customer's house to do a spring clean. Upon arrival, we noticed a few furry things that looked bloated and floating in the water. If I'm not mistaken, two of these furry things already had algae growing on them.
My coworker at the time was in school for crime scene investigation, so she somewhat jokingly treated this like a crime scene. Upon further investigation, we realized that the floating objects were unfortunately squirrels — all five of them. She concluded that they had fallen off the telephone line that ran over the pool. Case closed."
—Adam Van Dyck, Owner
Putnam Pools | Cookeville, Tenn.
"During a foreclosure we worked on years ago, we found 25 televisions! When the pool was cleaned up, we tried to work on the equipment. The renters poured hydraulic cement down all of the pipes and re-glued them. It was a nightmare."
—Tony Arredondo, President
The Pool Guys of Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay, Fla.
"A customer of mine saw that a tree had fallen over the fence and into the pool. When he tried to remove it, there was a tug of war on the other end. He discovered a beaver was trying to pull the tree into the pool to build his dam.
The customer called the Ministry of Natural Resources, who trapped and relocated the beaver. We then did a superchlorination of the pool."
—Robert Stewart, Owner
Robco Water | Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
"This story dates back 15 years ago when foreclosures were pretty prominent. I was receiving a lot of calls from real estate agents to come and clean pools, so they would be able to better sell the home. This particular property someone had already purchased.
When we arrived at the pool, it was completely black, and it was also a wood bowl pool. Well, you can't drain a wood bowl inground pool because it will collapse. This was about a 20-by-40 foot pool, so it had about 30 to 35,000 gallons of water in it. And they were on a well.
I began by putting two separate filters in, a lot of my 'secret chemical magic' and an auxiliary vacuum and, as it was clearing up, a cord got stuck inside my vacuum. I yanked it up and there it was, an abandoned Hoover vacuum. But as the pool got even clearer, we found a set of furniture and all sorts of junk in there. We had to be very careful cleaning it out because it had a vinyl liner, too.
A lot of times when the home is foreclosed on, the person leaving is so mad at the bank that they take a lot of things with them — even pool filters and heaters. But in this case, they threw a bunch of stuff in the pool itself. I think they were trying to ruin the pool.
But I made sure that pool came back to life. Of course, I didn't try plugging in the Hoover vacuum — I highly doubt it would have worked. The pool still runs today and is forever nicknamed "The Swamp."
—Kirt Kleiner
KMK Services | Pittsburgh, Penn.
"In 1983, we worked with a lovely Argentianian woman, Martha. And she was quite dramatic but also very fun to work with — we loved her, and she also loved us.
One day, she calls us up and is just hysterical. She said, 'Charles, Charles, you've got to come over here! Armadillo, armadillo in the pool. Poo poo in the pool!'
Charles was at the office with a plastering contractor at the time, so they both went over to Martha's. By then, the armadillo had migrated into the skimmer. Charles retrieved the armadillo, and the contractor actually asked to keep it. He said his guys make tamales out of armadillo.
So, we were just left with the poop in the pool. It was sort of like Caddyshack. Martha said, 'You've got to drain the pool.' And Charles replied, 'Don't worry, Martha. I have a special chemical for armadillo poo poo.' He shocked the heck out of the pool, and we were good to go."
—Merry Wise, Owner
Wise Pool Company | Conroe, Texas
"Once, a sultry 50-something wife of a Russian gangster was naked on the hood of (one of) her Ferrari's when I arrived to fix the problem with our recent indoor pool installation. I did not even feign politeness and might have even vocalized 'Oh hell no!' as I immediately turned, and RAN to my service truck. Y'all ain't murderin' me, comrade!"
—Steve Goodale
swimmingpoolsteve.com
Ontario, Canada
"I turned the corner into the backyard to see a couple doing it on an inflated water bed. They told me to go ahead and clean the pool anyway."
—Keith Kraemer, Owner
Valley Pool Service | Fresno, Calif.
—Bob Jeffries
Gainesville, Fla.
