As a person who collects and clears rubbish, junk and waste from properties, I have often encountered strange situations that have often left me gobsmacked. I have also discovered some treasure beneath the junk. Read all about my 12 year experience as a rubbish and junk collection specialist.
The human psyche can be a very strange thing. Some people will make an effort to conceal their secrets, while others will just hide them in plain sight. Read on to find out how I found some strange things while clearing piles of rubbish from properties
Kanne Smith is the founder and operator of Swann Rubbish Removal, a waste management and rubbish removal company in Perth Western Australia.
Let’s talk Rubbish!
One day I received a contract to clear rubbish from an old house in the Northern Suburbs of Perth. The typical old house. You know the ones with the weatherboard, old kitchen and sagging floorboards. The owner happily gave me a key and said leave it as you find it. Well I started to enter the house and notice that there was no carpet in it. Now I have been in many houses in my time, but never had a customer without any carpet at all! I also notice that there were no walls either! Yes you read correctly, no walls! It was just an empty shell of a building. So I walked around a bit more and noticed there was a big hole in the roof. Ok well that’s not so bad, it is expected that the house may have spiders or other critters living in the walls and roof. So I started to clear out all of this rubbish from these holes. Well when I had finished working on this property, I started to notice there was alot of metal scrap metal lying around the yard like junk or for sale. It also had some scrap metal lying under sofas and beds etc…So needless to say, as I cleared out all this rubbish, it looked like they had been scrapping metal. Ok that’s no big deal, but then something really bizarre happened.
Not far from the house was a small construction that I haven’t seen before. It had a big lock on it and all these security shutters on the windows etc…… So I thought to myself, what is this? So I decided to call the owner up and ask him about it. “Oh yeah that’s my secret garden” he says in a very sarcastic tone.
So now I’m thinking, OK this guy is a bit weird. OK lets go in and have a peek, so I unlock the gate and enter. What do I see? Well the yard has a metal roof, where most of the work has been done. Except for a few little holes here and there, you know like for roof ventilation etc… But as I look up at this metal roof, all of a sudden I notice something flying down from this metal roof. So I looked up at the hole that was there and saw that it was some type of bat. So now my curiosity starts to kick in so I start to investigate further into this structure that is high on scaffolding with wide security shutters. It was just a large rectangular room with about 6 foot high walls.
So now I’m curious as to whats in there, so I start to climb up the scaffolding. After climbing up about 30 feet, I then start to notice that the security shutters are closed. So I decide to remove one of the shutters to see whats in there. So now I’m peering through it and notice that a table and a chair are inside. It also has some tools and electrical wiring on it, but obviously nothing was being done there… So slowly, I removed all of the security shutters until they all came off. Now I’m standing in this room that is now 50 feet above ground with nothing protecting me but a thin metal roof. So I took my mobile phone out and decide to take a short video of this secret garden. After taking the video, I decided to look around the garden, so I looked into the corner of the room where there was something covered up with an industrial sheeting. So once again, my curiosity kicks in and I remove all of it to see what’s under there. What do I see? It’s some sort of machine. It was about the size of a small car and was quite heavy. I’m assuming it must have been going in the ground, which is the only reason why this would be underground. So now it starts to dawn on me what this all means, but I keep my eyes and ears focused on the last thing that was covered up by that sheeting. It was a rather large cylinder and I could see something coming out of the top. So now I’m wondering what this thing is going to do? So I figure it must be some kind of an oil or gas pipeline or something? But then as I look at it more closely, there are like 4 big pipes with very thick black rubber tubes coming out at both ends of it. What the heck is this thing?
So now my curiosity is piqued, but also a bit scared because I’m thinking “what if this thing explodes?” so I decided to grab my mobile phone and take a photo of the pipelines through the open shutters that were on scaffolding.
Then it made sense to me. The whole reason why this place is so cheap to rent, is because it is not just one building, but 2! It has the main building with 4 bedrooms, but also this secret building underground.
Now I’m really curious as to what this machine does and why it’s underground? So as I look at the cylinders again and notice that it’s about 20 feet in diameter. So then I decide to take a photo of the cylinders from both ends looking towards each other in a mirror photo fashion.
So now I’m starting to worry about my own safety at this stage. This was’nt some simple small boring job. When I asked the owner about it, it turns out that it used to be an old steam engine that powered the suburb! So now I’m thinking “Ok here we go, I’m trying to keep this as a surprise, but the owner already knows!” So now I decide to re-lock the gate and climb down. So I climb back down to the ground level and go back over to the owner’s house. When I get there, I asked him about it again and he asks me what I’ve been doing. So I tell him that I’ve found the old steam engine. Now he gives me a funny look and says “How did you find that?” Well that’s when I decided to show him my video. Once he sees it, he then tells me that that’s not the steam engine, but it’s the gas pump that they used back in the day. It was used to power all of the houses in that place.
A day in the life of a rubbish removalist is seldom boring. This is only one instance of something interesting which has occurred to me while working in the suburbs of Perth.
If you need a junk removalist or rubbish removal service, feel free to call me anytime. My name is Kanne and I manage Swann Rubbish Removal, servicing all areas of Perth.