The Weirdest Things I've Ever Found Inside HVAC Ductwork

The following is by Bob Wells, a retired HVAC tech. Bob worked over 30 years in the field, 23 of which he ran his own contracting business.

No matter what our specialty, once we’ve been on a construction-related job a few years, we’ve got a few stories to tell. A lot of them start with “How the heck” did that get there, or “YUCK!”

Is there some truth to these stories? Maybe, But here’s some of the weirdest things I’ve found or heard about that were stuck inside ventilation work.

Baby Binkies

This one I remembered from when I was a kid. The old Victorian house my grandparents lived in had forced-air heat with registers in the floor. There was a large return in the hallway, right across from the door to the closet under the stairs - which was where the toys were.

I don’t know how often my grandfather bothered cleaning it out - everyone knew that the pacifiers could, and often would, fall through with just a little “help” from the babies. But I do remember being there one time when he pulled out 18 of them! (I guess that’s not that bad, considered there are 36 grandchildren).

My sister’s cat

This one happened not too long ago. My sister adopts rescue animals. She’d just gotten a new cat, a young one, but it was pretty skittish around both my sister and the other animals in the house.

One day my sister comes home and can’t find the new addition. She finally notices that the vent to the duct is a little out of place. Ten feet in, she can see eyes staring back at her. The cat had managed to pull the grate off the floor enough to get in.

Six days passed, and even the lure of food and water wouldn’t draw it out.

The SPCA came out and didn’t know what to do. The HVAC repairman couldn’t come up with anything better than tearing everything apart - which the landlord wasn’t happy about, but that’s what they did. Then my sister had to find a new apartment.

The Snake

This one was on my watch, although I really wanted to tell them “wrong number” when they told me their 4-foot long ball python had crawled into the ductwork. For me, it might as well have been a 15-foot anaconda.

Apparently, the snake found two attractive reasons to crawl in - warmth and mice. So when the owner didn’t secure the cage properly, “Sally” (is that a good snake name?) decided to go exploring.

I took a glance around, thought I saw the thing once or twice, and decided to call animal control. They were able to flush it out and get it with some kind of noose. As far as I know, it’s back in its cage and hasn’t decided to dine on the owner yet.

The Rock ‘n Roll

A buddy of mine got a call to do a general HVAC cleaning before new owners moved into a place. While working in the kids’ room, tucked behind the grate, he found a stack of heavy metal CD’s. Megadeth, AC/DC, Pantera, what have you. Never quite figured out why they’d need to be hidden there.

Conclusion

Finding odd stuff while working in other people’s homes can be entertaining, or even embarrassing to you and them. But it sure makes for great stories later on.