Lift/elevator tales?

I regularly use the lift in a public carpark near me because the central shopping area is at the ground floor and floor 9 has an exit 3 qtrs of the way up a hill. Many people who haven't parked a car there use it for exactly the same reason, it saves a lot of steps up the hill.

After finishing work today I did my shopping and when I got to the lift there were only 6 people waiting in front of me, but when they got inside the last guy in a suit looked at me and said "Unlucky fella, nobody wants you squeezing in with our clean clothes so it's a long walk or a long wait" - I had been plastering ceilings today so even after a good pat-down and a rinse of my head/face/arms, I of course had multiple dried plaster stains/marks on my tee-shirt and trousers - I replied, "C'mon there's loads of room, the sign on the lift says up to 8 persons, I'll squeeze into the corner and won't touch anyone" he answered "Sorry man, long walk or long wait for you today" the other people laughed and the lift door closed.

Instinctively I ran up the stairs with my heavy shopping bags in hand and pressed the 'up' button on the first floor to make it stop there, I raced up to the second floor and did the same, then the third, fourth and fifth, before walking at a fast pace doing the same on floors 6 to 8. When I reached the ninth I leaned casually against the wall facing the lift door and waited for it to open.

It opened after waiting the best part of a minute, and I smiled at the guy in the suit and laughed "You were right about the long wait, took ages for you lot to get up here", then went on my way chuckling to myself.

A few months ago I was using the same lift travelling up and couldn't stop myself let a smelly one out as I got in. By the time it got to floor 9 it was not particularly pleasant, and when the door opened, a bloke was clearly just about to press the button but stopped himself, saying "That was lucky timing" with a smile...to which I replied "Maybe not so lucky, sorry" and scurried away.

I also got stuck between floors in the very same lift some years ago, the voice in the intercom told me it would be a good half hour before help arrived, but being impatient and having some tools in my bag I forced both sets of doors (with no damage) and slipped out between the gap like a snake.

Lifts are a curious private/public place which forces strangers to be in close confines with each other, or give moments of privacy to people who know each other. Years ago I was seeing a girl at a building I worked at, and the lift provided some welcome moments to embrace each other, but that is another story.

So, if you have your own lift/elevator stories please share them here, from dark and sinister, to quirky and funny, I'd love to read them.

Cheers,

GoS

Elevator oddities always makes me think of this story from Gettysburg:

Perhaps the most famous story connected to the time of the battle was related by author Mark Nesbitt. He told of two college administrators who were working on the fourth floor of the building one night. As they were leaving, they stepped into the elevator and punched the button for the first floor. Instead of taking them to their destination, the elevator mysteriously passed it and came to a stop on the basement level. The elevator doors then opened to a terrifying scene....

The basement storage room had vanished and in its place was the blood-splattered operating room of 1863.

Gettysburg Ghosts


This has been on the internet for several years.

Elevators are convenient but the slow ones make me feel awkward

I got into lift in Frankfurt, Germany,only to see the lift was made by a company called Schindlers. I had made it onto schindlers lift. It seemed hilarious to me at the time, but of course I was very very drunk.

Here's someone who never lived to tell his story..



I can't help but laugh, but I think he should have won the Darwinism award for his efforts lol

I have two elevator stories. Nothing too special though.

Most recently a couple years ago we were working in East Lansing mi, parking in the parking garage. We all had to park at the top, maybe is cheaper for the company or they just want us dirty construction workers as far away fro the civilians as possible.

But on this particular day about 12 of us all showed up at the ground floor elevator door at the same time. nobody wants to wait so we all got in. pretty well packed in too. And the elevator starts it upward action.

Now inside the car where the floor indicator lights are above the door, several of the round plastic discs with the various floor numbers were missing.

So my buddy who is a goofball, but a 6'5" 325 lb goofball, sticks his finger into the hole above the door where one of the discs would be and pretends to get electrocuted. (just the silly crap he does)...all funny but the elevator stopped.

I think it had more to do with the 12 guys in it than the finger but regardless one of our coworkers is an ex marine everybody calls Rambo. He is nowhere as big as my buddy but he is no slouch and a hot temper and he gets in my buddies face and starts screaming at him. They were about to start throwing punches so I had to jump between these two monsters and was like "really? you gonna fight in here? remember there are 12 of us in this elevator.

well, short story long the fire dept rescued us and no punches were thrown...

My second elevator story happened when I was just an apprentice in the sheet metal trade so 1989 or 90. We were building a hospital and we had to put a louver in the elevator shaft. At the top.

So the Otis elevator guy dropped the elevator to the floor below us and opened the doors. I climbed on top of it with an extension ladder. He closed the doors and I rode the top of the car to the top and set up my ladder and did what needed done.

Honestly it was kinda scary at the time but now it is just pretty cool.

1985, I was 15 at the time, living in 2nd floor on a 7th floor building.

Each floor had 4 apartments. The apartment in front of ours was occupied by a couple (Russian immigrants) in their 30ies.

I came home from highschool one day to find the elevator not working and many liters of fresh blood in our second floor, with two older ladies cleaning it with mops...

The lady from the apartment in front of ours came back from work minutes earlier, stepped into elevator at ground floor.

When she reached the second floor, as she was stepping out, the TECHNICIAN PULLED THE LIFT UP.

No warning signs, no notes, he was working on the elevator motor, and just pulled the car up. Cut the poor lady in half.

Then one of the buildings' kids waited in the parking lot for the husband to return from work:"Your wife died in the elevator!!!"


Cheers(?)

Ari

originally posted by: woodwardjnr
I got into lift in Frankfurt, Germany,only to see the lift was made by a company called Schindlers. I had made it onto schindlers lift. It seemed hilarious to me at the time, but of course I was very very drunk.

That is pretty funny. There are like 2 elevator companies that I know of, Otis and Schindlers.

In Shania Twain's childhood town of Timmins, Ontario, The Senator Hotel was built on a hill. It was my first business trip to that location and it happened on one of the most frigid winter weeks ever, close to minus 40 degrees (be it Celsius or Fahrenheit). The parking lot was at the rear of the building on the hill slope, and the signs alerted patrons that one could enter the hotel elevator directly from there. I brought my suitcase with me, because once out of the cold, I did not want to go back outside for the rest of the day.

The elevator was going up, but I didn't care. I just wanted to escape the frigid cold. When it stopped, three people exited and a most gorgeous hunk entered as well as three young teens. He looked over their heads at me and asked me to press the lobby button for him. However I could not locate that button right away as the lobby and first couple of floors were below the parking levels and above the basements, something I found unusual. Hunk nicely came to my assistance, oozing charm and said he'd been there before.

"Are you here for the swim meet?" Gorgeous Hunk with a British accent asked.

"No, I'm here on business," I replied. "Are you their swim coach?" It was obvious now that the teens were competitors.

And here is where my mind was about to be blown. "I only come here once a year when it gets cold like this."

So I just had to ask. "Please don't tell me you left warmer weather to come for something like an ice fishing derby," I began to object.

Gorgeous British hunk then told me, "No, I'm here to test Jaguars."

Aw, man! My job seemed so bland...

Haha, thanks for all the interesting and funny replies folks, just what I was hoping for!
I'm sure there are many more elevator stories out there, and I almost wish those little steel boxes could talk and share them here lol.

This youtube is not new, but a prank by LG screen tech's in an elevator which still raises a chuckle for me and I think is worth sharing: