14 Shocking Things Plumbers Have Found in Pipes and Sewers

Every blocked drain starts with a phone call. Most of the time, the culprit is predictable: grease, hair, a buildup of soap and debris that accumulated quietly over months.

But occasionally, a Roto-Rooter technician feeds a camera snake into a pipe and finds something that has no business being there.

Over decades of service calls across North America, Roto-Rooter technicians have retrieved some of the strangest things found in sewers and residential pipes on record.

The stories below are real. The locations are documented. And every one of them ended with a call to a plumber.

The Most Common Weird Things Plumbers Find

These are not rare occurrences. Plumbers encounter these items on routine service calls, often multiple times per year.

Dentures and false teeth

Dentures are among the most frequently recovered unusual objects in residential plumbing. They typically end up in pipes one of two ways: slipping off the edge of a sink while being cleaned, or being lost during an eventful night and discovered only when the toilet stops flushing the following morning.

UK water utilities have reported recovering hundreds of sets of dentures annually from sewer networks.

Plumbers in the United States report a similar frequency. A technician at an airport once cleared what appeared to be a standard toilet paper clog and pulled out a complete upper and lower set.

He hung them on the maintenance closet wall, added sunglasses, and named the display John. Nobody came forward to claim them.

Children's toys

The toilet is, to a small child, a portal.

Action figures, rubber ducks, LEGO bricks, and stuffed animals disappear into it with reliable regularity.

Parents typically discover the problem when the toilet stops working entirely, and a plumber pulls out whatever the child flushed the day before.

Scottish Water workers retrieved a large Winnie the Pooh stuffed toy from a sewer drain in East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, in 2014. The find made international news, and Scottish Water used it to launch a public campaign urging residents not to flush anything other than pee, poop, and toilet paper.

The utility reported spending £7 million that year clearing more than 40,000 blockages caused by items that should never have entered the sewer system.

Personal electronics

Cell phones are recovered from drains regularly, usually after slipping from a back pocket.

What makes some of these recoveries unusual is not the item but the circumstances. A plumber called to clear a blocked pipe at an airport bathroom and retrieved a brand-new smartphone still sealed in its original box. Airport policy required him to hand it in to lost and found.

In a residential call, a homeowner reported a clogged toilet and mentioned he had dropped his phone while flushing. The phone he neglected to mention was also brand new, still in the box, and somehow fit down the drain.

It was in perfect working condition when recovered. A cat pushed an electric razor off a bathroom shelf and into the toilet. The plumber's snake activated the power button mid-retrieval. The razor was still running when it came out.

Jewelry

Rings, earrings, bracelets, and necklaces enter drain pipes constantly slipping off fingers during hand washing, falling from countertops, and being lost in the shower. Most recoveries are straightforward. Some are not.

A plumber at an Arizona restaurant spent eight hours on a single retrieval job. The item was a diamond ring valued at $70,000, flushed accidentally in a restaurant restroom. The recovery required removing several sections of pipe and using an infrared camera to locate it.

Animals Found in Pipes and Sewers

Animals enter plumbing systems through open pipes, cracked sewer lines, and roof ventilation stacks. Some find their way in. Others fall.

Roto-Rooter has made pet rescue a formal program, and every rescue on the list below was performed at no charge.

Kittens and cats

Near Morristown, New Jersey, a feral kitten fell into an open basement pipe during a home renovation and dropped six feet into the main sewer line.

Technicians Matt Lowry and Matt Mendoza located her with a camera snake, dug down to the pipe, and cut it open to free her. The rescue took three hours in the dark and rain. The homeowners adopted her and named her Stucky.

In Commack, New York, a kitten was trapped six feet underground for two days. Rescuers pushed sardines into the pipe to coax her toward the exit.

In Eugene, Oregon, a full-grown cat traveled 150 feet through a pipe system before Roto-Rooter technicians lured her out by slowly pulling a camera snake back toward the exit. The cat followed it all the way out.

Snakes

Snakes enter residential plumbing through cracks in sewer lines and open drain openings, usually seeking warmth or water.

Most are discovered when a homeowner opens the toilet lid and finds one inside the bowl.

A plumber investigating a bathroom overflow found a live snake swimming in the toilet. The homeowner had no idea how long it had been there.

Small mammals and birds

Squirrels enter through the roof ventilation stacks in cold weather and become trapped when the pipe narrows.

Baby ducks fall into storm drains regularly enough that fire departments have developed procedures for retrieving them. In Apex, North Carolina, thirteen ducklings fell into a single storm drain while their mother waited on the surface.

Scottish plumbers performing a routine drain cleaning once retrieved a live badger.

A farmer in China searched for four days for a missing cow before hearing mooing from a sewer drain.

Rats and vermin

Rats move through urban sewer systems over considerable distances and enter homes through the same pipes that carry wastewater out.

Dead rats lodged in residential drain lines create blockages that present with a distinct odor before the source is identified.

Camera inspection is the only reliable way to locate them without excavation.

Valuable Items Found in Sewers

Not everything plumbers retrieve is a toy or a household accident. Some of the most surprising finds involve significant sums of money lost accidentally, hidden deliberately, or simply swept away unnoticed.

Gold and precious metals

Researchers evaluating 64 municipal wastewater treatment plants in Switzerland estimated that the country's sewer pipes contain nearly $3 million worth of gold and silver.

The precious metals accumulate from small amounts lost through drains and toilets across the entire network over time.

A similar study in the United States in 2015 put the figure at $13 million in precious metals in sewage nationwide.

Cash and coins

A plumber was called to a residential property where the gravity line had backed up completely. When he snaked the drain, he began pulling out quarters. By the time he finished, two five-gallon buckets were full. The total came to $12,000. Nobody in the household admitted to knowing where the money came from.

In a separate incident, a bank robber hid in a Starbucks bathroom after a heist. When police apprehended him, the toilet stopped working. The plumber called to clear the blockage and pulled out hundreds of dollars in cash. The robber had started flushing before his arrest.

The Truly Unexplainable

Some finds defy any reasonable explanation. These are the stories that plumbers tell for the rest of their careers.

Fatbergs

A fatberg forms when cooking fat and grease poured down kitchen drains combine with wet wipes and sanitary products flushed down toilets. The mixture congeals inside sewer pipes and hardens into a rock-solid mass that grows until it blocks the line entirely.

In September 2017, Thames Water workers discovered the largest fatberg ever recorded beneath Whitechapel in east London. It stretched 250 metres, roughly the length of Tower Bridge, and weighed 130 tonnes, the equivalent of 11 double-decker buses.

An eight-person crew worked seven days a week for three weeks to remove it for £220,000. A sample is now on permanent display at the London Museum.

In December 2025, a new fatberg was discovered in the same sewer network. Thames Water called it the grandchild of the 2017 original. It weighed an estimated 100 tonnes and stretched 100 metres.

Fatbergs are not a London problem. They have been found in sewers in New York, Denver, Baltimore, and Melbourne.

Cooking fat poured down a kitchen drain does not disappear. It travels deeper into the pipe, cools, hardens, and waits.

Unexploded ordnance

A plumber cleared a drain clog and retrieved what turned out to be an unexploded Civil War cannonball.

In Nashville, Tennessee, a mortar shell was discovered in a sewer line. Similar finds have been documented in Blackpool, England, and Jammu, India.

In London, WWII-era grenades have turned up in the city's central sewers, remnants of the Blitz that were never accounted for.

In each documented case, the ordnance was safely handed over to authorities for disposal.

Half a car

During a widespread sweep to clear blockages in London's sewer lines in 2014, Thames Water workers found half a Mini automobile blocking a line.

The vehicle was removed. No one explained what had happened to the other half.

Fake poker chips

A man in Atlantic City entered an open poker tournament with $2.7 million in counterfeit chips. Over the course of the tournament, he swapped fake chips for real ones, ultimately leaving with just over $6,000.

When police closed in, he retreated to his hotel room bathroom and began flushing the remaining fake chips down the toilet. The chips clogged the pipes, a plumber was called, and the man was arrested.

The chips were recovered as evidence. The plumber had no idea what he was walking into.

What Should Never Go Down a Drain

The fatberg in Whitechapel did not appear overnight. It grew for months from cooking fat poured down kitchen drains and wet wipes flushed down toilets.

The toys, the dentures, and the poker chips all entered pipes the same way: through an opening that should have been used only for water and waste.

The rule is simple. Toilets handle three things: pee, poop, and toilet paper.

Kitchen drains handle water, soap, and small food particles that a garbage disposal has fully broken down.

Everything else belongs in the trash.

Items that cause the most drain blockages:

• Wet wipes, including products labeled "flushable": they do not break down like toilet paper and are responsible for the majority of material in sewer fatbergs.
• Fats, oils, and grease: they travel down the drain as liquid, cool inside the pipe, solidify on the walls, and accumulate until the line is blocked.
• Sanitary products and diapers: designed to absorb and expand in water, which is exactly what they do inside a pipe.
• Dental floss: does not dissolve and tangles around other debris, binding blockages together.
• Hair in large quantities: accumulates at bends and joints and combines with grease and soap residue.
• Cotton balls and Q-tips: do not dissolve quickly enough and form pulpy masses in drain lines.
• Coffee grounds: settle in low points and pack tightly against other debris.
• Medications: do not belong in the water supply and should be returned to a pharmacy for proper disposal.

FAQs About Weird Things Plumbers Find

What should I do if I accidentally flush something valuable?

Act immediately, do not flush again. Every additional flush pushes the object deeper into the pipe and further from reach. Turn off the water supply valve at the base of the toilet to stop any further water movement through the line.

Call Roto-Rooter as soon as possible. The faster a technician arrives, the higher the chance of recovery before the object travels past the accessible section of pipe and into the main sewer line. A camera inspection locates the object precisely before any retrieval attempt begins, which protects both the item and your plumbing.

How do plumbers find objects deep inside pipes?

Camera inspection is the primary method. A flexible cable with a small waterproof camera attached to the end is fed into the pipe, transmitting live video to a monitor above ground. The technician watches the feed in real time, identifying the location, depth, and nature of the blockage or object.

For objects that have traveled further into the line, locator technology pinpoints the camera's exact position underground, allowing technicians to mark the spot on the surface above. This determines whether the object can be retrieved through the existing opening or whether excavation is required.

Can a toilet really flush a smartphone?

Yes, under the right conditions. Modern smartphones are slim enough to pass through the toilet trap, the curved section of pipe at the base of the bowl, particularly if the phone enters at the right angle.

Once past the trap, it can travel several feet into the drain line before lodging at a bend or joint.

Roto-Rooter technicians have recovered smartphones, including brand-new models still in their original boxes, from residential and commercial drain lines. Recovery is most likely when the toilet is not flushed again after the phone disappears, and a plumber is called immediately.

What happens to gold and precious metals that go down the drain?

They travel through the pipe system and eventually reach a municipal wastewater treatment plant, where solids are separated from water during the treatment process. The metals settle into the solid waste, known as sewage sludge.

Researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology evaluated 64 municipal wastewater treatment plants across Switzerland and found that more than $3 million worth of gold and silver flows through the country's sewer network every year.

The metals come primarily from Switzerland's gold refineries and chemical industries, with around 95 pounds of gold and 6,600 pounds of silver entering the system annually.

A separate 2015 U.S. study evaluated sewage sludge produced by a community of one million people and found approximately $13 million worth of metal in the waste.

In most cases, recovering those metals from sewage sludge is not economically worthwhile. In areas with very high industrial concentrations, however, researchers say recovery could be viable.

How much does it cost to retrieve something from a drain?

The cost depends on how far the object has traveled, what retrieval method is required, and whether any pipe needs to be opened or excavated. A straightforward retrieval from the toilet trap or the accessible section of the drain line is typically resolved in a single service call.

Objects that have traveled past the trap and into the main line require camera inspection first to locate them precisely, which adds to the total.

If excavation is needed to access a section of buried pipe, costs increase significantly. Call Roto-Rooter for an accurate assessment. Our technicians can often estimate the complexity of a retrieval during the initial camera inspection before committing to a method.

How quickly can Roto-Rooter respond to a drain blockage emergency?

Roto-Rooter operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including weekends and holidays, across North America. For urgent situations, an active blockage, a suspected valuable in the pipe, or a drain backup causing water damage, emergency dispatch is available at any hour.

Response times vary by location, but our network of local technicians is designed to minimize wait time on emergency calls. The sooner you call after an incident, the better the chance of a successful retrieval before the object moves further into the line.

What equipment does Roto-Rooter use to inspect pipes and locate blockages?

Roto-Rooter's plumbing technicians use professional-grade camera inspection equipment, a flexible, waterproof camera mounted on a cable that transmits live video from inside the pipe directly to a monitor.

This allows technicians to identify the exact location, depth, and nature of any blockage or foreign object without opening the pipe.

For objects or blockages that have traveled deeper into the line, locator technology works alongside the camera to pinpoint the position underground and mark it precisely on the surface above.

For stubborn blockages that cannot be retrieved manually, industrial-grade hydro jetting equipment clears the line by directing a high-pressure stream of water through the pipe, breaking up and flushing out the obstruction completely.

Call Roto-Rooter for Drain Cleaning and Blockage Removal

Most blocked drains are hair, grease, and soap buildup, resolved in a single service call. But occasionally a camera snake finds something unexpected.

Roto-Rooter's experienced plumbing technicians have seen it all, which means nothing is too strange, too embarrassing, or too far down the pipe to retrieve.

Schedule service with our team for drain cleaning, blockage removal, and camera inspection. Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for both residential and commercial properties. Pet rescues are always performed at no charge.