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25 Of The Most Disturbing, Random And Gross Things Found By IT Guys On Customers’ Computers
Once, years ago, I went to my mother's house to check on her computer, which she said had become very slow. When I asked her on the phone if she had ever cleaned it, she said yes. Who could have known that by "clean" she actually meant "wipe the dust off the top and sides" only?
Then, having unscrewed the side panel, I saw that the computer was almost half filled with dust and dog hair. However, as it turns out, the IT guys fixing customers' computers sometimes come across much more unexpected and strange finds.
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#1
There was a computer shop in town. One of the workers there told me some guy came in with a laptop and asked if they report child p**n to the authorities.
The worker said yes.
The customer turned around and walked out.
Nicole Weymann 7 months ago
Better answer would have been something like "our clients' data is confidential", which sounds assertive, but really isn't (a one on one talk to an officer is quite confidential, especially compared to, say, a billboard). That way they woulnd't have committed to anything (especially without anything written), and might have helped the victims. (Hindsight is 20/20 - I'm not sure I'd have had the presence of mind)
Dirk Daring 7 months ago (edited)
30 year IT guy here. If a client's computer has a 1.5Tb folder named something like "Taxes", don't open it. Open a command prompt and check the file names. If you see anything like "dgagat498y7604t78h3.jpg" just leave it alone. Edit: It may not be anything illegal, but it's definitely NOT Tax papers.
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#2
Worked for 10 years doing local computer repair, anything hardware related. This lady came in and her hard drive was failing so she wanted pictures backed up. She was with another guy who I assumed was her husband. The lady then mentions there were pictures of her deceased husband that she wanted and also mentions there are topless photos she needs because she is planning on getting a b**b job. The guy speaks up and says he is actually her pastor and is paying for the b**b job to help her cope with losing her husband. Super awkward. My boss and I laughed for like 30 minutes after they left.
Wang Zhuang 7 months ago (edited)
Yeah, tithes for t*****s, gotta love it
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#3
Was swapping out some old PCs for an accounting firm whose offices were in an old farmhouse in a fairly rural area. Picked up the old computer and heard a rattle of something inside.
It was filled with acorns presumably collected by a field mouse.
Untamed Snark 7 months ago
In my head the little mouse is so very proud of their little compute house, it's warm and there's lots of space to store acorns, plus these strange pretty lights
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Seadog 6 months ago
Friend of mine has the local computer shop. He won't take a customers PC inside until it's opened outside. Too many times he's opened them to find all kinds of critters living inside, especially roaches. Can't say how many times I've driven by his shop and seen a PC sitting outside wrapped up tight in a garbage bag.
Marcin 7 months ago
There are two important aspects to this story. First how on earth did this mouse get inside the PC? I suspect it might have been a contortionist mouse. Second more important did the IT company report the accounting company for habitat destruction?
Matthew Currie 7 months ago
Some years ago I had a spare PC and had left one of the card covers off the back. Mice got in, and stashed a pile of D-Con in it (I used to put the green granular stuff out). Of course the mice snacked on the D-Con and died somewhere else, but the computer had quite some issues. Not as bad as some friends who lived in a rather porous old lake house. One day they went to print something and the printer didn't work. It was full of snakes! I don't put that mouse bait out any more. They got into the stove too, and when I ran an oven cleaning cycle, it caught fire and melted the interlock, and I had to drag the smoking stove out of its place and open it with a crowbar! Country life can have its challenges!
Load More Replies...There are many threads on the internet where tech guys talk about what they have found in clients' computers - both inside and on the very desktop. Our selection today is based on this thread in the AskReddit community, where several hundred netizens answered the question: "People who work in IT. What's the weirdest or disturbing thing you've come across while fixing a customer's computer?"
Apparently, there could be a lot of interesting and sometimes completely paradoxical things, from a couple dozen big cockroaches to intimate photos right on the desktop, from cigarette butts to an unalive gecko stuck in a fan. And even to a live lizard that somehow got inside.
#4
A user told me they kept hear strange scratching or clicking noises from inside the PC under their desk. We opened it up and found a foot long lizard that got in when it was little and grew too big to get out. I live in Phoenix so lizards are every where. It's kind of gross to think that enough bugs were in the building and going in the PC to keep it fed.
Danger Muppet 7 months ago
A lot of desert animals get most of their water from what they eat.
Load More Replies... Roni Stone 7 months ago
Bugs of every ilk are attracted to electronic innards. Dark, warm, protected. He had enough food.
David Beaulieu 7 months ago
How was there enough food and water in there for him to grow? Maybe stay alive for a while, but grow?
#5
Not super disturbing but one time a coworker asked me to look at their computer (cant remember why), so i remoted in and they had a browser open with a bunch of tabs, one of which was a google search. They had googled “why is my p**s orange?”.
I chuckled and pretended not to notice and proceeded to fix the issue with their computer. Afterwards they asked me what was causing the issue it took just about everything in me not to say “i think you just need to drink more water”.
#6
Not IT, but doing repair for a gaming pc company. Customer complained of random shut downs. Opened it up and there was a dead gecko wedged in the cpu fan keeping it from spinning. Poor little feller.
Sam Trudeau 7 months ago
One of my desktop hard drives broke because it was full of cat hair. I now make a point of saying to my cats "No, you can't sit on the computer."
Ben Kay 7 months ago
Do your cats pay any attention to you when you say that?
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It's quite interesting that computers have been widespread in our homes and offices for decades, but for many people, they still remain something like a magic crystal ball - "it works somehow, but I don't understand how exactly." However, many years ago, the outstanding British science fiction writer Arthur Clarke wrote: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
It turns out that people sometimes view the system units of their computers as trash cans or ashtrays (though what am I talking about - a friend of mine once used a CD-ROM as an excellent coaster for a cup of coffee). And then the poor tech guys have to get all that garbage out of there...
#7
I was a support guy back then... Senior director in a world leading consulting firm was person with the issue.
He was known to have some p**n on his laptop as told to me... But I never saw it.
Someone filed a complaint and made some serious accusations.
That week his laptop's hard drive mysterious was "lost". He even filed a ticket to get it replaced. He said it must of fell out between client meetings. Sure mate.. "fell out". This is a hdd screwed in and with a cover screwed in at 4 points.
He suddenly retired later that month after 30yrs..
Nix 7 months ago
Yeah, I hate it when my laptop's hard drive randomly unscrews itself, squeezes itself out of the tiny holes in the closed case, and gets lost, all without me noticing while I'm actively using the laptop.
Charity Angel 7 months ago
My very first laptop had a HDD that was VERY easy to remove - it was just a little door that held it in. Unfortunately the catch perished, and it no longer stays closed, which means the HDD randomly slides out if tipped slightly to the right. So it *is* possible for a HDD to fall out, but not for a laptop built this century.
#8
My stepson was in IT. His first job was general user support with passwords and other mundane things.
He told us of a time when the person he was on the phone with took several minutes to explain his laptop issue, then finally when IT asked him to perform a task, the person replied "just a minute, let me pull over"...DUDE WAS DRIVING AND LAPTOPPING SIMULTANEOUSLY.
Seadog 6 months ago (edited)
You say that but the police do it every day. Not saying it should be okay, just saying. The lawmakers and enforcers have clearly placed themselves above the laws they force on the rest of us.
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Macky McLemore 7 months ago
This happens more often than you would think. I worked in IT years ago and the amount of people that were driving or doing something equally as crazy while expecting us to troubleshoot their issues, or thought we could work on their computer that they had left at home or work was a lot.
Just stopping by 7 months ago
😂😂😂 was it a cop?? pretty sure I’ve seen some of them on the little laptops in their cars at a light before
ILoveMySon 7 months ago
Most people are to a certain degree now considering manufacturers are keen to screens in vehicles. Frankly, it should be outlawed IMO.
Charity Angel 7 months ago
I think it says a lot that I'm horrified, but not actually surprised. And at least the guy pulled over when he needed to actually do something - there's a lot of idiots out there who wouldn't.
#9
Brick dust, feathers, hair and an actual mushroom growing inside the case. This was all in the same pc.
Seadog 6 months ago
Local shop gave me 2 Dell servers. Really nice, expensive Dell Servers resulting from an upgrade at a local manufacturing facility. I popped them open, removed the items that pop out easily for cleaning maintenance. There was a white powder on everything. It looked like it had snowed on my shop driveway when I finished blowing them out. I told IT friend I think he needs to get a filtered cabinet for those servers. Turns out they are in a filter cabinet, triple filters, inside a room built for the servers and had been cleaned within the last 60 days. That dust is the leftovers from making fiberfill. It's fine enough to get through and build up in 60 days. I can't fathom actually working there. Can't imagine what that does to the lungs of the workers. Asbestos lung comes to mind.
However, sometimes employees of computer repair companies have to deal with much more serious things if they suddenly find some illegal content on a client's laptop. Probably one of the most famous stories here is the fall of the former world star of punk rock, British singer Gary Glitter, who in 1997 simply took his laptop for repair - and it all ended with his arrest on charges of child exploitation.
Today, Glitter is serving another term in a British prison - but in his case, a simple laptop check unraveled a whole tangle of unsightly deeds, many of which turned out to be real crimes...
#10
An entire photos folder filled with folders, each titled a different woman’s name. inside those folders were very explicit photos of him plowing them. that was not a fun data transfer.
Uncle Panda 7 months ago
There was no legitimate reason to view the photos during the data transfer.
IORN 7 months ago
Unless bloody windows was set to view folder contents as extra large icons...
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Trophy Husband 7 months ago
I had a boss who broke up with his girlfriend (who was a former pron star) and brought the laptop she had used but which he owned (it was a company laptop, and a small company, and he's the CEO, so that's not unusual there). What was unusual was he needed me to break the password she set so he could see what she was doing on the laptop. It had a lot of p**n of the two of them...
Seadog 6 months ago
I used to build PC's from discarded machines and give them to people who couldn't afford a PC. I used to just wipe the drive without even looking but as I began to run out of product keys for Windows, I started looking to see if maybe I could just restore the OS and lose the files. My son comes home with a PC he found sitting beside a public dumpster. I power it up, decent machine and there's pictures of the PC's owner and his girlfriend, and his GF kissing her GF and I stopped and wiped the drive. No telling what else was on there. I'd say he's lucky I got hold of that PC. If you can't wipe or remove your hard drive, take your PC to a computer shop, most will dispose of your machine no charge and you won't have to worry about personal info getting out.
#11
Lots and lots of rat poop inside an owner’s personal PC. We immediately closed the case, threw it in the dumpster and told him it was dead.
#12
Bible verse of the day app in startup, Jesus wallpaper, browser cache full of granny p**n.
Nix 7 months ago
It always seems to be the most hyper religious hiding the most messed up kinks
Strings 7 months ago
I'll be honest: what I've seen in almost 30 years of helping abuse victims, is the worst offender use hyper religion as a camouflage
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Anthony Elmore 7 months ago
Guy likes his women like his testaments. Old and moderately incompatible with modern society.
Apatheist Account2 7 months ago
Brings to mind the old joke about the sermon on "the widows' might"...I told the vicar that there's only two in the village, and they both do!
Papa 7 months ago
Several years after my mother-in-law passed away my father-in-law (who was well into his 80's) and his pastor were talking, and they somehow got onto the subject of how the church is supposed to take care of widows and orphans. He said "Pastor, I'll tell you what. You take care of the orphans and I'll take care of the widows."
Load More Replies...Anyway, sometimes there are pleasant finds as well. For example, another old friend of mine had been buying and selling second-hand laptops for many years - and, opening the CD-ROM of a laptop bought from some random dude, he found a couple hundred bucks hidden there.
However, it remains a mystery why he actually hid the money there and from whom he was hiding it, because the seller never left his contact information to be found...
#13
Different clients:
Nest of snakes
half a box of condoms (still wrapped)
cigarette butts (multiple)
top of my list was a tower PC at a hospital that had red warning tape along the top (bump/trip hazard) but the nurses thought it was bio waste and would slide syringes, used bandaids etc in there and the tower was easily half full of this stuff.
Wang Zhuang 7 months ago
Someone sure went through a lot of trouble to hide that box of condoms
#14
maybe not the weirdest or most disturbing, but certainly the most awkward:
I was helping fix a guys tablet that would not connect to wifi, (he also wanted to go through some other settings with me to check they were right).
After a bit of fiddling I got it connected, causing a huge rush of notifications to appear for various apps that could now connect to the internet again, including about 3 minutes of messages of varying levels of explicitness from grindr popping up and me doing my best to ignore them while going through other settings.
Deta Rossiter 7 months ago
this happens too often with clients phones who get a little internet all of a sudden
#15
A high-level employee was setting up strip club and hooker meets on his agency-issued system via his assistant. Dude did not give a single f**k. Unrelated, and on the other end of posts in here, but I had to scrub CP from systems after it was used as evidence.
In any case, this selection of stories, carefully collected for you by Bored Panda, can really combine education with pleasure: a great reason to smile or laugh, and an equally instructive list of what one shouldn’t do with their computer. Well, if you also have some similar interesting tales under your belt, please feel free to share these stories in the comments below.
#16
Someone had a bit of a problem with google not letting them create shared files.
Mostly out of curiosity, or maybe luck, I open Task Manager and find that the computer has not been turned off in something-and-80 days.
sturmwesen 7 months ago
I have colleagues like that... they never really shut it down unless it's absolutely necessary
Roni Stone 7 months ago
I'm working on it! I'm working on it! Honestly, I'm really bad. I'll lay in the bed and argue with myself if I should really disturb my hours of insomnia to go turn off the laptop.
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Trophy Husband 7 months ago
I've had Linux machines with 5 years of uptime. You're lucky to get a month on Windows both because of instability and because of updates.
nottheactualphoto 7 months ago
The FreeBSD machine that I use for email: "up 488 days, 5:30" I think the power went out or something.
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Ace 7 months ago
Err, yes? I never voluntarily power off my laptop, it just sleeps when I close the lid, starts again when I open it. Updates when it needs to, maybe twice a year on average, but apart from that, why would I?
Nicole Weymann 7 months ago
Habits, and to save energy, would be my answer. I also guess it may live longer if it's not running constantly. But overall my reasoning is more like "why would I leave it running", rather than "why not".
Load More Replies... Ruth Kilpatrick 7 months ago
The only time my computer is turned off is when the power goes out.
#17
CP. I've found some on the machines of 3 separate clients which is 3 too many.
nttw26r4fw 7 months ago
Yeah, I was like, Computer Programs? That’s expected! Lol 😂
Load More Replies... #18
Used to be in IT, did PC repair for a local shop here during high school. During the summer, we got laptops from my high school that belonged to the teachers. Just did a usual clean up on it, did updates, etc. On the desktop for one of them, there were some kinda NSFW pictures of one of the teachers. Her modeling in bikinis, some selfies trying to show off her butt, etc etc. None of them were in a folder either, just right there on her desktop.
Edit: she wasn't older either, mid 20's so you would think someone that age would know to maybe put that in a folder, or not have that on your work laptop 🤷♂️.
Tropical Tarot 7 months ago (edited)
I'm an older woman and I have pics of myself that would make all y'all blush.But definitely not on a work laptop.
Tim Crowhurst 7 months ago
With age comes experience. That's why the correct term for grey hairs is wisdom highlights.
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les 7 months ago
why shouldn't an older woman keep pics of herself? if they make her happy its no business of yours.
Matthew Savestheworld 7 months ago
I think OP meant that they were suprised a younger person would not be more tech savvy and careful with their photos. Still agist to think that an older person would be less secure
Load More Replies... #19
60 large cockroaches living in a student laptop. We reported the family
Bill Swallow 7 months ago (edited)
Yeah, if they're going to submit a CPS report, having an actual count goes some way to show they aren't exaggerating.
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sfgothgirl 7 months ago
Rhetorical questions, but: Who got to count?! Was it a group effort? How were the roaches contained after they were discovered, such that they were able to be counted?
#20
Not in IT but in tech support, my colleague seated beside me initiated a remote session for an accounting software to show him how to correct stuff, and his wallpaper was a poorly made collage of his wife’s t**s. He was proud of it too, said it’s super nice and it’s new.
#21
I find it disturbing how gross some people let their computers get. Sticky crumbs, goop, gunk, just nastiness. Recently found some strange goop smoking in an hdmi port. I think it was coffee.
Tropical Tarot 7 months ago
I buy a keyboard protector for every single pc I buy or can convince the owner to buy. Saves so much trouble.
Oskar vanZandt 7 months ago
I've swapped out keyboards in offices that had breadcrumbs making up half a loaf in-between the keys- fell out when shaken upside down...
#22
Enough dust to stuff a pillow.
#23
Not in IT, but I used to help with PC issues at a company I worked for yrs ago & came across a folder of lactating p**n (naked women breastfeeding).
Tom Brincefield 7 months ago
It can be. They didn't specify who the women were breastfeeding.
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#25
First off: The American Federal government computer had five languages installed, including Greek and Russian.
Secondly: I didn't know there was even a shortcut to trigger a language input change. FYI, it's Alt+Left Shift. And in never in my 10 years of IT have I've seen anyone accidentally trigger a shortcut that's basically coming up a little short on Alt+Tab.
Third: The guy on the team doing Help Desk for the first time immediately knew what had happened.
I've never felt so bewildered, by something so harmless.
Ace 7 months ago
You;ve obviously never worked outside of solely US English-speaking environments. I have multiple languages installed, and several key combinations to switch between keyboard layouts. Nothing odd about that at all. Used to be the same when I had work computers, absolutely normal for all concerned.
Earonn - 7 months ago
Thanks, I was wondering how OP could not know about it (which usually happens without one wanting it to), I never realised that monolingual English speakers probably don't have other languages installed at all. :D
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Kris 7 months ago
OMFG!!! I have just been dealing with this EXACT issue at my work. One of the ladies who I work with locked her computer when going on a break (Data Protection) and when she came back and put in her password it was not working. She did it VERY slowly and then told it me to try and still nothing. After some annoying account reset she got back in but had no idea why her it didnt work before noticing that she had the US keyboard and not UK. This must be how she did it by accident! This is a thing to remember for the future!
Sam Trudeau 7 months ago
So *that's* why my keyboard keeps switching from English CA to CMS (which changes @ to " on the inputs)
What do you think ?
David Beaulieu 7 months ago
FBI came into our office and confiscated a guys while cubical (not the furniture). Emptied all his drawers, got his computer, phone etc. Turns out he was caught photographing the high school men's wrestling team in the locker room at a competition. On his work issued iphone.
Lost Panda 7 months ago
I had a woman once bring me her PC to transfer her documents, videos, photos, etc. because the PC was having problems and she was just going to by a new on (pre-cloud days). Dog videos... a lot... and not the "aw cute puppy" kind...
Mel in Georgia 7 months ago
One married middle-aged man I worked with was fired from a "Christian" company when our IT guy spotted a surge in Internet activity from just a few addresses on one computer. They guy was streaming po*n constantly. Very stupid thing to do at work!
KatSaidWhat 7 months ago
In 1998 I worked for a well known high street bank in their IT department. Went back to Saffa for 2 months and when I got back and went for drinks with the old crew, transpired the manager had been arrested for b********y. That was a moment.
Dariusz M. D. 6 months ago
I noticed that frequently, comments and stories left by other BP people are more interesting that the original posts.
Oskar vanZandt 7 months ago (edited)
I was reprimanded once at work for consensual explicit s3xy-talk on ICQ (back in the mid 90s)- never repeated. Also have never downloaded p0rn0graphic images or clips. Rarely looked at the stuff. Just not interested. Also find writers' attempts at erotica in stories and gratuitous s3x scenes in movies cringeworthy...
Seadog 6 months ago
Job in the 90's, the DM and LPA (audit) brought in a sexual harassment video we all had to watch. This video starts and every minute or two we're all taking about how that is one or more of us. DM and LPA just shake their heads and walk out. They knew it was a waste of time making us watch it. Our whole staff would be offensive to most people but we all just got along because it was just all in fun. and we weren't snowflakes that got offended by everything. My AM shrink wrapped the MerchPro to a pallet of product...and she stood there and let him.
Load More Replies... wobbly jelly 7 months ago
We once had a "fire" reported in a keyboard. When we went to investigate found a lot of red tinsel from the christmas decorations - "the fire" - didn't explain the 2 cups of coffee and other drinks that had been used to put out the fire.
David Beaulieu 7 months ago
FBI came into our office and confiscated a guys while cubical (not the furniture). Emptied all his drawers, got his computer, phone etc. Turns out he was caught photographing the high school men's wrestling team in the locker room at a competition. On his work issued iphone.
Lost Panda 7 months ago
I had a woman once bring me her PC to transfer her documents, videos, photos, etc. because the PC was having problems and she was just going to by a new on (pre-cloud days). Dog videos... a lot... and not the "aw cute puppy" kind...
Mel in Georgia 7 months ago
One married middle-aged man I worked with was fired from a "Christian" company when our IT guy spotted a surge in Internet activity from just a few addresses on one computer. They guy was streaming po*n constantly. Very stupid thing to do at work!
KatSaidWhat 7 months ago
In 1998 I worked for a well known high street bank in their IT department. Went back to Saffa for 2 months and when I got back and went for drinks with the old crew, transpired the manager had been arrested for b********y. That was a moment.
Dariusz M. D. 6 months ago
I noticed that frequently, comments and stories left by other BP people are more interesting that the original posts.
Oskar vanZandt 7 months ago (edited)
I was reprimanded once at work for consensual explicit s3xy-talk on ICQ (back in the mid 90s)- never repeated. Also have never downloaded p0rn0graphic images or clips. Rarely looked at the stuff. Just not interested. Also find writers' attempts at erotica in stories and gratuitous s3x scenes in movies cringeworthy...
Seadog 6 months ago
Job in the 90's, the DM and LPA (audit) brought in a sexual harassment video we all had to watch. This video starts and every minute or two we're all taking about how that is one or more of us. DM and LPA just shake their heads and walk out. They knew it was a waste of time making us watch it. Our whole staff would be offensive to most people but we all just got along because it was just all in fun. and we weren't snowflakes that got offended by everything. My AM shrink wrapped the MerchPro to a pallet of product...and she stood there and let him.
Load More Replies... wobbly jelly 7 months ago
We once had a "fire" reported in a keyboard. When we went to investigate found a lot of red tinsel from the christmas decorations - "the fire" - didn't explain the 2 cups of coffee and other drinks that had been used to put out the fire.
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