Odd Things Found While Using Your Light.

[Monocrom]

Sometimes when you shine your light around, you find something odd or unexpected.

Share with us your odd discoveries. Here's mine....

Used to work as a Security Guard in a large office building in Manhattan, near Wall street. Place had everything, including executive showers that one of the other guards made good use of. One night, while on my regular patrol of the floors, I heard an odd sound coming from inside one of the executive conference rooms. The floors have light switches. But they were installed by an idiot. (Nothing like hitting a switch, only to remain in darkness while the far end of the floor is lit up). So I pulled out my Inova X5, and entered the large conference room.

The larger conference rooms are pitch black at night. My X5 performed like an SF M6 in the total darkness. The sound was coming from under one of the large, long, conference tables at the front of the room. The tables are covered with large white sheets from top to bottom. The sound was now very familiar. As I pulled the sheet open, I found one of the porters asleep under the table.... snoring like crazy.

I recognized him as the one who usually waxes the floors, an older gentleman who could barely speak English. I gently woke him up, and made it clear that he could not sleep there. I could have written him up, but I felt sorry for him. I told him I wouldn't write him up, but I would if he did the same thing again.

Nothing quite like finding a sleeping man with your light. I'm just glad he still had his clothes on.

 

[NotSoBrightBob]

Cool thread thanks Monocrom. Mine is probably not real unusual but for a city boy I thought it was cool.

I live in one of those planned master communities that is surronded by woods so occassionally I take my old 1970 Honda on off road bike for some trail riding along the fringe edge of the woods. Just putter along at 5-10 miles an hour enjoying the scenery. Well last night it was dusk so I loaded up my 6P/Malkoff as I figured if it got dark my old clunker bike was surely to break down. As it got darker I was riding along I see up about about 100 yards 4 figures on the trail, look like BIG dogs with long necks. Seeing no dog owners around I stop the bike and look again and begin to wonder if it was actually Deer. So thinking like a dork I want to get a better look and flip on the 6P. ALl four look my way and take a quick turn and the most beautiful syncronized gallop back into the woods clearing the 3 foot fence with no problem. In hindsight I should have just watched them in all their beauty but no I had to use the light!

What a sighting, made my ride special.

Bob

 

[KD5XB]

When I was a kid -- back in the '60's, the Dark Ages I guess -- we used to find spiders by the way their eyes lit up in the light from flashlights, car headlights, etc. I always knew where NOT to go -- some of them were pretty big! :duck:

 

[Superdave]

I was crawling through the ceiling of the casino i work at, running some coax line for a TV when i saw a weird shimmer down in one of the soffits... i made my way over via some water pipes and found a Eveready flashlight.. it had about 3/4" of dust ontop which means it was there for atleast 5 years.. flicked the switch and it turned on for about 5 sec.


I also found a 10yr old pepsi can and a screwdriver on that trip using my G2 and a LED headlamp. :thumbsup:

 

[ozner1991]

an naked guy in the house on the other side of the street frying bacon at 3 am

 

[Bradlee]

an naked guy in the house on the other side of the street frying bacon at 3 am

:lolsign: That would be awkward running into him on the street after that.

 

[ozner1991]

the naked chef moved out 9 months after it happend i never realy knew the guy that lived there XD

 

[Sgt. LED]

Pills

After the patients pass out for the night I like to sweep the room for pills they have spit out or thrown. I started doing this after I found a pill one day peeking out from under a patients bed. It was between the bed and desk so I moved the bed out of the way to get to it and discovered an entire weeks worth of anti seizure and anti psychotics hiding under there. She had been on my psych ward for only a week so that means none of the nurses were doing the require mouth checks on any shift during med passes!

 

[KD5XB]

an naked guy in the house on the other side of the street frying bacon at 3 am

Geez, he's braver than I am!!!

 

[kramer5150]

I've told this story before but its worth re-posting.

I take my son out on night hikes all the time. We go out looking for frogs, salamanders, deer, opossum, bats, night owls and whatever little critters we can find.

One night I brought a coleman spot light and a 12V gel-cell battery, its one of the older "1 million candlepower" units from the mid-80s. Its still my brightest light and will light up a football field++

So we go out and I light up the hills, looking through all the trees and foliage for deer. I swing the light back over to a large oak tree and there on a picnic table is a young couple making out half covered by a blanket. WOOOPS!!! Sorry!! I could see them trying to cover their eyes from the light.

My son was 5 at the time and was in his "Daddy... Why??" phase. He couldn't understand why those people were out there hugging an kissing in the dark without a flashlight.

 

[Juggernaut]

I was out in the woods camping one night a few months ago, while walking around and my friend found a flashlight on the ground in some bushes we were walking by. It was a 2x AA Timberland "like the boot" and it was plastic but with a rubberized coating and the button was under this layer so it was mildly water proof. We picked it up and hit the switch, nothing happened "we didn't expect anything since it was halfway buried in the ground and covered by leaves and dirt, obviously it had been there awhile", so on the way back my friend was playing with it and all of a sudden it came on "very dimly" but still on. As he switched it on and off it got brighter and brighter "as though we were waking up the batteries". I opened it up to find two Energizer batteries marked with an expiration date of 2004! They had not leaked and the light didn't let water in in over 9 years! I have seen leaked alkalines still new in there box:thumbsdow, but these ones were fine. He kept the light and I got the magical batteries.

 

[tacticalmedic87]

I was playing with my wifes E1E last night and found a HUGE:sick2: spider in one of the ceiling corners in my living room. Grabbed the broom and squashed his eight legged butt, I hate spiders!!!

 

[sappyg]

I was playing with my wifes E1E last night and found a HUGE:sick2: spider in one of the ceiling corners in my living room. Grabbed the broom and squashed his eight legged butt, I hate spiders!!!

my wife thought our house was clean until i started buying flashlights. now suddenly there are spider webs all over the house

 

[Zim]

In Arizona lots of neighborhoods have problems with scorpions. A good way to check for them is with a blacklight. Not much of a "flashlight" used in this case, but being able to see the flourescent little monsters is important. :sick2:

 

[Superdave]

In Arizona lots of neighborhoods have problems with scorpions. A good way to check for them is with a blacklight. Not much of a "flashlight" used in this case, but being able to see the flourescent little monsters is important. :sick2:

One of the many things i don't miss about living in Phoenix. :ironic:

 

[IsaacHayes]

I have a 2C mag with a 1watt cree UV led in it. It throws well and would rock for scorpion hunting!

 

[Monocrom]

Photon Freedom Micro Scorpion Finder sounds like an ideal light for use in Arizona.

 

[bwcaw]

I found two people in mid coitus on a beach in my park once when i was on patrol at about 1 am. That was awkward. I was using the spotlight on my car, but i did exit my car and use my tk11 when i told them to put their pants on and get a freaking room.

 

[Toohotruk]

Weirdest thing I ever saw in my flashlight beam (6P/M60), was a mother rabbit, eating one of her babies...that may not be weird to people that grew up on a farm, but it definitely tripped me out!

On that same piece of property, I saw something shining brightly in my 6P/M60s beam about 75 yards away...turned out to be a wolf spider's eyes! I had read on here about spotting spiders that way, but I couldn't believe the distance I could see the eyes shine! I didn't think about it at the time, but I bet I could have been 100 yards away and still seen them.

Reading the post earlier in this thread reminded me of that night with the wolf spider.

 

[Lightraven]

I don't consider it odd to find someone in the dark while using my light--it's my job. However, some meetings are more colorful than others.

I saw a man walking a dog up the beach, one night. Yawn. No big deal, nothing unusual. It was a little late, and the location was close to Mexico, so I lit him up with my flashlight.

"Evening, where you going?" He smiled and said, "San Diego." Hmm. Most people in San Diego don't say they are going to San Diego. They will say, "Home" or "3rd avenue" or "None of your business." They don't smile either.

I asked him where in San Diego he was going. "Court," he replied.
"You're going to court?" Now, I've had plenty of drunks wander past me on the beach, but this guy didn't seem drunk.
"Court isn't open. Why are you going to court?" I asked.
"Asylum."
"Wait, where are you from?"
"Cuba."
"How did you get here?"
"The taxi brought me to the beach."
"Did you just cross the border?"
"Yes."
"You did? You can't. That's illegal."
"Asylum."
"You're not really from Cuba. You're Mexican, right?"
"Cuba." He pulls out about 6 documents showing him to be--Cuban. Cuban money, cuban everything.
"You gotta go back to Mexico. Court isn't open. Go through the port of entry, tomorrow."
He just stood there, smiling, petting the dog.
"Uh, what's with the dog?"
"It's not my dog. It just followed me."

After one of the strangest field interviews of my career, the guy was taken into immigration custody for his new life in Miami (I'm assuming.) He flew from Havana to Tijuana International Airport, caught a taxi to the beach (Las Playas) and strolled across the U.S./Mexico border, accompanied by somebody's dog. He was, by profession, a dancer.