One of Jay's many jobs now that VMR has moved to the new building is to take VIP's on a tool of the facility. He has done many tours, long and short, but was tagged for another one yesterday. This time the tour was for a high profile democratic politician and his entourage. As is Jay's custom they start at the mezzanine; with the wide expanse of window existing on the 2nd floor mezzanine you see the complete garage and numerous trains below. Start them out with a bang, give them the WOW! factor from the beginning. After meeting on the mezzanine Jay took the group through the offices and the control room. This completes the tour of the 2nd floor but the best is yet to come. On the main floor you can get into the cars, touch and feel the actual train. You get to watch the trains run back and forth on the practice tracks. Oh, the best part of any tour, the nuts and bolts of the operation.
Jay took his guests to the stairs and mentioned that any who would like could take the elevator. Jay and a small group took the stair while 9 of the entourage loaded onto the brand new elevator. I failed to mention that the facility has only been open for about a month. And Jay, to get a little exercise, always takes the stairs. Jay and his small group went to the first floor and waited in front of the elevator. He waited... and waited... and waited.... then became concerned. Jay heads up the stairs taking them two at a time and starts to hear yells from above....
You got it! The elevator was stuck between floors. The elevator held 9 large men, including the politician himself, and had started down to the main floor only to get stuck about 5 feet down. Jay didn't lose his cool at all. He pulled on the two doors to separate them about 3 inches and started to make decisions. They tried all the resets, fail-safes, and restarts. No luck. Jay points to his co-worker and says, "you call the elevator company, I will call 911, whoever gets here first will get these people out!" After waiting only 5 minutes or so both the elevator company and the fire department arrive at exactly the same time. The elevator company employee tries the resets, fail-safes, and restarts, but the elevator still doesn't move. By this time it is getting warm in that elevator, and hot around Jay's collar. The elevator repairman turns to Jay and says "it says that there is a door open. Jay pulls apart the outside door 3 inches again and asks "is there a door open in there?" Someone from the entourage answers, "yes, we pulled it off the hinges trying to get it open." The Elevator repair man says, "that's why it won't reset." Out of his little front pocket comes a bent piece of metal. He places it in the top of the outside doors and they open all the way. Jay turns to him and says, "why didn't you do that 15 minutes ago?"
Needless to say, they help all 9 people out of the elevator and the paramedics checked each one of them out. All was well but they had been in that elevator for 35 minutes. Now their time was gone and they never did get to complete the rest of the tour. After the group was gone, Jay is told that is the 4th time the elevator has broken since the facility was open, and the second time with people in it. The moral of this story: Don't let Jay put you in the elevator!
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