Finding dead people

[alockguru]

I picked open a house where a woman was concerned about her son. She hadnt herd from him in a few weeks which she said was not normal. The whole time she was saying she had a bad feeling and was acting pretty down. I opened the door, she paid me then I left. few hours later the fuzz called me to ask a few questions. Turns out the kid offed himself and she had found him inside after I left.

Ive also made a key to a car that had been wrecked with brain matter all over the windshield. and seats. Cant remember why it was so important. I didnt go inside the car so maybe it was just to open the trunk. Usually those cars are sealed off with biohazard lables.

Another one I did was in the police crime lab. was involved in a robery and gunfight. was pretty neat seeing how they had it all set up with the rods to show bullet trajectories.

[dll932]

In the case of a locked car with the occupant dead inside, I'd call in a hazmat team before you open it. People have committed suicide with home made hydrogen sulfide gas which is LETHAL. Some will put a note on the window warning about it, but I wouldn't take it for granted they did.

[alockguru]

In the case of a locked car with the occupant dead inside, I'd call in a hazmat team before you open it. People have committed suicide with home made hydrogen sulfide gas which is LETHAL. Some will put a note on the window warning about it, but I wouldn't take it for granted they did.

no body was inside the car. It had been somewhat cleaned. The insurance lot was having a mechanicle key made but cant remember why. As stated I didnt go inside the car. I made from door readers.I confirmer key on door and trunk but left ignition for them. If I recall it was an eclispe (mit6)

[Pahaseta]

Years ago cops called us to tow a car and to open the boot. My cousin went there and opened the boot, there was a man beaten to death with an axe. Not a pretty sight.

[MatrixBlackRock]

Has this ever happened to any of you ?

Well not as a locksmith, but I have seen it twice now.

The first time:

The customers complaint was his fire alarm was dead, I checked the panel and there was no 120 volt power, so off I went to find the breaker panel. The owner of the shop advised me his breaker panel was in the meter room and I needed to go over to the real estate office to pick up the key, with the key in hand I opened the meter room door and there was a guy in his underwear sleeping on the floor, I reached under my shirt, un-snapped my holster and with my right hand on the stock of my gun, I tapped the guys foot with my boot while advising him he needs to wake up and move along, no response, so I tapped his foot again and then it hit me, he wasn't breathing.

The second time:

I get a call from my CS, the fire department is out at a strip mall I recently installed a fire alarm in and they cannot locate the fire alarm panel and the system is sounding, I drove out to the location met the Battalion Chief and he followed me around the back of the mall, I pointed at a meter room door that had a red sign on it with the words Fire Alarm Control Panel, the Chief then gave me a "oops we screwed up" look.

I had the keys for the building, but as I went to open the door I noticed someone had used something big, something like a pry bar to force the deadbolt into the un-lathed position and as before, I prepared to draw if needed and went to open the door.

Now before opening the door I did notice an odor like burning electrical gear, as did the Chief, so he had a couple of the fire guys with extinguishers stand by as I opened the door, what we found was unbelievable, the cover on the lower gutter, the line side feeding the watt hour meters had been removed, about three feet of the sheet steel gutter under the meters was burnt away, the wiring inside was charred and against the opposite wall was a persons body, the upper third of which was totally charred, parts of the guys face was literally charred bone, his arms looked like a hot dog that had been left on the grill for way too long, it was a disgusting sight.

I'm looking at this guy and I noticed every two seconds or so he would take a deep breath and exhale, meanwhile the Chief is barking into his radio to have EMS roll around the back of the mall stating "we have a victim in the meter room with severe burns."

Talk about an understatement.

Well it didn't take me long to figure out what happened, the guy was trying to scrap out the live copper wiring and in the process shorted a phase to the grounded gutter, the resulting arc flash and the plasma it produced vaporized his cutter and part of the gutter, blew the guy against the opposite wall and cooked him real good, he died later at Memorial East. He probably would have just died in the meter room only to be discovered on Monday when someone noticed a partial outage, but the smoke produced by the arc flash and his smoldering body tripped the smoke detector I installed in the meter room, which brought out the FD.

FWIW the power was still on, the arc flash, which I am sure pulled thousands of amps, never dropped the primary fuses protecting the utilities distribution transformer, the arc flash as bad as it was, cleared the fault (his cutters), before the fuses warmed up enough to blow.

None the less that had to be a gruesome way to die.

Wayne

[Lockules]

I began working as a locksmith in the late '80's, and I got a call at closing time from the local police dept as we were closing up shop for the day. There was a rooming house several blocks from the shop, and an older tenant hadn't been seen by anyone for days, so they asked me to open up the unit, expecting to find a deceased tenant.
I unlocked the door and as the officer went in, I could see someone laying on the floor. It was only after the officer had moved several steps past me that the collection of empty wine bottles on the floor around him came into focus. I think he counted 14 of them.
The officer nudged him with the toe of his boot and the man groaned. The tenant was OK, but I'd wager he felt as though he were dead for a while.

[CMS_SAFECRAKR1]

We have all had our fair share at our shop. Local dispatch uses us when police do any kind of welfare call. Always a few stiffs to be found before the police sign off the paperwork. Worst one was we where called to rekey a house to secure it for CSI agents after they found week old crime scene where some "painted the walls" in brain. Police deemed it homicide/setup. Worst smell ever. Funniest was Drunk guy passed out at light completely smashed with the heat fully cranked and the windows up. Dispatch called us to meet PD and we opened it the guy looked dead but was alive, second worst smell i think....hot liquery stink....