I’ve been thinking of this thread with my water meter mishap.
I was hired to do cleanup on a very large Bigleaf maple. The tree crown failed into the powerlines the line clearance crew came and shit piles the tree into the yard before reconnecting and left the 6’ diameter stob standing. My contract is just to chip the brush, and haul the wood that’s on the ground. Brush and 24” logs shit piled 4’ deep in any available space.
Brought the mini in and started picking the mess apart, making great time. Got 70% of the way through the mess. My GUESS is that a end of a scaffold limb impacted the water meter, and I grabbed the butt end levering the meter right out of the ground.
While I dont specifically state damage to water meters on my contract, I do mention other underground utilities, septics, sprinkler systems, and other incententals.
Now the kicker is that this propert is a rental, in a development with a community well. The client was away on vacation, and the renter was not home away on a overnight. I was entirely on my own to make decisions. I called a good electrician friend for a plumber recommendation and couldn’t get through.
Called a random local plumber, they came out within an hour. His tweaker white boy wannabe homie, kept mentioning how screwed I am, how it’s the cities issue, and they couldn’t help me. The jobsite is nearly 20 miles outside city limits, and this yahoo clearly has no idea of the island.
Finally got the community well management company out to shut the damn thing off. Dude pulls up, parks (we shut down the chipper), he comes around my truck and screams at the top of his lungs “Aww FUCK!.” Then he turns around gets into his truck, and tires screeching literally floors it speeding out of the neighborhood!?!
Then comes neighborhood association elected dude. He just marches right in all pissed off, and starts kicking brush around muttering. I ask him what he is doing, and he says he is looking for the box. I responded “it’s right behind you” he turns around three time flapping his arms kicking brush. I had to ask him to stop many times, and once he does I show him where the box is placed just 10’ away. He then mutters about not knowing if he has a shut off key, and doesn’t know where the neighborhood shut off is. Gets in his car and drives off without saying anything else.
About 20 minuets later, the water just stops flowing, then “Aww F..” dude comes back. Never once makes eye contact, and doesn’t respond to me at all. He grabs a shovel and starts flinging mud all over the place. We rake... He then pulls some glue out of his truck then starts cursing, again. I walk over to see if I can lend a hand, the glue is bad and he has to go get more. I catch a whiff of booze on his breath. He leaves, we finish chipping. He comes back still not saying anything throwing a hissy fit stomping around. We finish cleanup, and I tell my guy to head out. I text the client explaining what happened, and that I think it’s taken care of. Then I walk back over to the plumber, his mood slightly improved. He asks how it happens, and I explain. He mutters, and I ask if he needs anything from me. He says no, so I get the he’ll outta there before shit gets any weirder, and I wind up murdered.
