What's the best tool a worker left behind at your house?

[LCHIEN]

And never came back for?

Me, workers left

• tree trimming crew left A chain saw, but I gave it back to him a year later. Housing cracked, looked like it had been dropped from a tree a few times.
• Painters left a ladder, 6 ft aluminum covered in paint, pretty beat up
• 4 foot aluminum Ace Hardware level, well used but all the vials intact.
• Mag lite c-cell flashlight but it looked like it had been used for a hammer, dented, cracked lens. I think i gave it back to him next time he came for service.
• Rented a Storage Pod once, it came with partial set of 1/4" drive sockets (Fractional inch) rolling around the inside.

[cwsmith]

I can't say they have as I usually walk around with them in their last hours here and help them pick up anything. About the only thing they've ever missed was when we first bought this house, we were still living in Painted Post and I later found an old broom in the back of the garage that wasn't there before. I called but was told they didn't think it was there's.

Decades ago I had my car in the body shop and later found a socket wrench in the trunk, I took it back to their shop. But in the office I've found a few tools over time. The maintenance guys were so busy I think they'd loose their heads. With fellow workers I always made an effort to track them down.

The only time I ever kept a tool was once I found a fairly nice Stanley hammer that the phone company left behind. I called and was told they didn't know anything about it, keep it.

CWS

[leehljp]

Last year a friend asked advice on good AC guy to install a new AC into his house. I hate recommending in situations like that because we don't have a lot to choose from in rural areas. The guy that did a great job for us might not do a great job for the next! Anyway, I gave my friend 2 different names and let him choose. The installation went OK but the living room ducts (2) were not putting out much cooling. While I was there, my friend asked me to check it. I crawled up into his attic and sure enough, one duct line was not properly hooked back up. I did hook it up and while there, I found a 20V Dewalt recip saw, the one that cost about $300. I gave it to my friend and told him he could trade it to the AC guy for a reduction in the AC installation cost. The AC guy was glad to get it back but couldn't remember where he left it.

When in Japan and we had some work done on our house (roof) they brought a huge tarp 20 meters X 20 meters in case it rained. They left it and never came back to get it. I had no need for anything that big but I had a Japanese woodworker friend that I gave it to about a year later.

[capncarl]

Not left at my house but on the street. Going to work one morning a painters van pulled out of a Burger King almost side swiping me! As they sped up a 16’ fiberglass extension ladder fell off the top of their van. I had to slam on brakes… again… to keep from running over MY NEW LADDER. I loaded it up and went to work. The next week as I was passing the same Burger King I noticed a new 8’ fiberglass step ladder laying in their parking lot. I circled around and saw that MY NEW LADDER had the same painting company name stenciled on it so I loaded it in my truck and added it to my ladder collection. I contacted the paint contractor and told him I had his ladders. He said his employee has told him someone had stolen them off the truck. He docked his pay for loosing the ladders by not tying them down. I still have the ladders.

[twistsol]

Left behind, but not a win. My daughter's father in law was having some work done on a commercial property he owned. The contractor disappeared and left behind a Wagner HVLP system, a Bosch 4100 table saw and a couple thousand dollars of other tools. What he didn't leave behind when he vanished was about $30k in a deposit that was supposed to be for materials.

[LCHIEN]

One time we were carpooling in heavy traffic in the Durango and ran over a 8-foot fiberglass step ladder laying crosswise to the lane. We went over it to my surprise without its getting caught.

It kind of went blump - blump

60 MPH, I'm sure that ladder was toast. I'm sure we weren't the only ones to have run it over.

[dbhost]

Convertible hand truck. When my roof was replaced the contractor was using a convertible hand truck to move things like boxes of shingles around to the back of the house that sort of thing. After the job was finished and everything was cleaned up-ish, I discovered this hand truck in my back yard. And it was fairly new to boot.

I actually get a good bit of use out of it...