Close Calls from Falling Objects Out of High Rises

[DiracPool]

Does anyone have any stories of close calls from objects falling out of windows of high rises in the city (or elsewhere)?

I was watching the Ken Burnes series on the civil war recently and they said that the women in New Orleans used to dump their chamberpots on the occupying Union soldiers when they walked through the French quarter

The reason I'm thinking about this is that I posted a Steely Dan song in the best songs thread and it reminded me of a time when I lived on the 29th floor of a high rise in Waikiki kitty corner from fort derussy and had the best view of the entire island of Oahu. This was in 1997 and at that time I fancied myself a bit of a gigolo so I raised my queen-sized bed about 6 feet off the floor like pimp so I had an even better view out the windows. And it was all widows. It was a very small studio apartment but it was on the corner of the building, so I had a 180 degree view of the whole island without any other competing high rises in site because this place I lived in was on the corner of a military base.

In any case, back to the main topic; One day I'm crashed out in my elevated bed and a friend of mine rings me up from the hotel lobby. I buzz him in and he walks into my apartment blind-stinking drunk. He says he's hungry and did I have anything to eat. I said I don't know, let's check the fridge. So we do this and he notices this carrot cake I had in the bottom shelf that had probably been there for 4 months. It was hard as a brick. He picks it up and laughs and and says, what the F%$# is this? And at that point he proceeds to fling this thing out the window, 29 stories up. My jaw just dropped.

I look down and it goes sailing down over the pool deck and explodes about 12 feet from a tourist couple out sunning themselves. The guy went spilling from his chair in a frenzy and started counting up the stories of the building to try to nail down where this flying saucer came from. Of course, stupid me has his head hanging out the window to help him out. So I yank it back in and nobody came knocking so I guess no harm not foul that time.

There was another time back in 1984, again in Hawaii, when I had a friend who lived in military housing just outside Honolulu. He lived on the tenth floor or something close to that. Anyway, one day we got really stoned on some good pakalolo and got bored watching MTV so were looking for something to do. My friend had these cartoon covered water balloons and had the great idea that we should fill these with water and drop them on the cars going in and out of the parking garage. Of course, this sounded like a great idea to me. So I was first. I saw a car driving into the lot, and with minimal trepidation held the balloon over the ledge and eyed the hood of the car like a Dresden bomber looking through a gun-site in WW2. In any case, I let the ordinance fall thinking it would make a harmless water splash and everyone would be laughing at the end of the episode like at the end of a Foo Fighters video.

Sure enough, it was not to end so well. The balloon bomb ended up exploding the drivers-side window of the car, sending "shrapnel" everywhere. Thankfully, I don't remember the driver being injured, seriously at least.

So, needless to say, we stopped doing that, smoked some more pot, and turned MTV back on trying to pretend it never happened. After all, the guy driving into lot wasn't looking up through rooftop and couldn't see us. I don't think they had security cameras that could see us. Plus we looked around to see if anyone was looking at us before we dropped the bomb. So we're cool.

Sure enough, though, it wasn't an hour later that the building security guard came knocking on the door and busted us. How? It was the loony tune water balloons. He knew my friend had these because he was playing around with them like the week before or something. When we opened the door he was holding up the exploded corpse of the balloon like a used condom with an accusatory look on his face. We were busted. I remember all of us standing there for what seemed like 20 minutes not saying anything because we didn't know if this guy we dropped the water balloon on was dead or what. Finally the security guard said he wasn't injured but that his window got blown out. I don't think we ever admitted to anything but we let him know through our mannerisms that he busted us and it wouldn't happen again

When I walk around a place like NYC, it amazes me that people aren't dying like flies from projectiles being thrown out of these windows, either intentionally through the pranks of children or just accidentally.

Do you have any similar stories?

 

[Borek]

Plastic bags with water, 6th floor, kindergarten below, police (actually it was called militia at the time) visit an hour later. I was about 12 at the time.

 

[DiracPool]

Plastic bags with water, 6th floor, kindergarten below, police (actually it was called militia at the time) visit an hour later. I was about 12 at the time.

Yeah. I think I was 15 or 16 at the time of the water balloon incident. I honestly thought these things would just harmlessly splash water. It was an expensive education in the true weight of water and gravity.

 

[Borek]

I guess we (I wasn't alone at the time) were quite lucky we didn't hit kids below, it ended with just splashes. The last bag was sent in the direction of a kindergarten teacher that yelled at us that she will call the militia.

 

[Psinter]

In any case, back to the main topic; One day I'm crashed out in my elevated bed and a friend of mine rings me up from the hotel lobby. I buzz him in and he walks into my apartment blind-stinking drunk. He says he's hungry and did I have anything to eat. I said I don't know, let's check the fridge. So we do this and he notices this carrot cake I had in the bottom shelf that had probably been there for 4 months. It was hard as a brick. He picks it up and laughs and and says, what the F%$# is this? And at that point he proceeds to fling this thing out the window, 29 stories up. My jaw just dropped.

I look down and it goes sailing down over the pool deck and explodes about 12 feet from a tourist couple out sunning themselves. The guy went spilling from his chair in a frenzy and started counting up the stories of the building to try to nail down where this flying saucer came from. Of course, stupid me has his head hanging out the window to help him out. So I yank it back in and nobody came knocking so I guess no harm not foul that time.

Ahahahahahahaha! That's crazy!

Sure enough, it was not to end so well. The balloon bomb ended up exploding the drivers-side window of the car, sending "shrapnel" everywhere. Thankfully, I don't remember the driver being injured, seriously at least.

What the hell?! Dude, no, why you do that? I mean did.

How high does one has to be to stand for about 20 minutes without saying anything?

I'm straining my brain right now really hard and I can't for the sake of me remember doing something like that when I was a kid.

Plastic bags with water, 6th floor, kindergarten below, police (actually it was called militia at the time) visit an hour later. I was about 12 at the time.

Was that a school? Why so many floors? The primary schools I have been have 2 floor buildings only.

 

[Borek]

Was that a school? Why so many floors? The primary schools I have been have 2 floor buildings only.

It is a quite standard (here) residential building, just two apartments at the first floor are adapted to a kindergarten.

 

[diogenesNY]

There is a New York City governmental department that specifically catalogs and and publishes the details of things that fall to the ground from windows in the city. (particularly air conditioning units, windows themselves, and construction materials, but not limited to those). Air conditioning units frequently enough make the plunge and it usually makes the local news. I also recall, many years ago, a (then) new office building that was apparently inadequately constructed and kept shedding giant window panels to the street, over the course of one summer. Naturally this attracted the attention of the police and many other City bureaus and agencies.

NYC has a long history (and mythology) of things falling from windows.

diogenesNY