E392 Trauma Restoration Man
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 30 minutes
Words per Minute
200.42184
Summary
Bobby Cotton is a Trauma Restoration Man from Minneapolis. He's been with us for a long time and is a great story teller. He tells us about his time in the service and how he got the job he has now.
Transcript
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I'm doing some shows, and that is Albuquerque, May 18th.
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Thank you guys so much in advance for your support.
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And I look forward to seeing you on the Return of the Rat Tour.
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And it's that job when there's a fire or a murdering or a hoarder or trauma.
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Somebody's got to go into those spaces and clean up.
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You know, somebody's got to be that little Shawshank baby crawling through the muck.
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Today's guest is trauma restoration man, Mr. Bobby Cotton.
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And I will find a song I've been singing just for me.
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Yeah, we went out there and did some shows not too long ago.
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Yeah, they're making everyone, like the city and the state is actually after businesses to bring people back to the cities.
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Yeah, they want them back in the offices because they, like all the, like there's nothing down there.
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So like all the little businesses and shops are all closing down because no one's down there.
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Yeah, it's like a bunch of murals and nothing else.
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I'm funny, it's like everybody left and they just drew people in the buildings.
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Yeah, and, you know, they had all the George Floyd stuff, all them riots that happened.
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Everything got smashed out, you know, because I, you know, in restoration, like a big old part of what I do is like when there's a fire or a window gets broken, I run out in the middle of the night and board stuff up.
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I mean, shit, I mean, I was, I was working like 120 hours a week boarding up all the, all the buildings.
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I had, you know, 300 sheets of plywood going up a day.
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Well, so you're saying, so I'm sitting here with Rob Cotton and he's a trauma restoration man.
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And so you're saying that during the, and we're going to get into your job.
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So in Minneapolis, during the George Floyd stuff, you guys were going out, you guys go out and board stuff up.
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So whenever there's a, you know, riot, you know, we do board up.
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So anytime there's a fire or there's a robbery or something, you know, you got to secure those buildings.
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And during the George Floyd stuff, we were doing stuff preventatively.
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People were worried about getting robbed and there was a lot of looting and stuff.
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So, I mean, we were boarding up and securing buildings, trying to prevent people from smashing the windows in.
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I mean, we were working like 24 hours a day taking naps in the truck.
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Were there certain things you would write on the certain boards to kind of keep people out where they're like, you know, like, was there any like kind of trickery?
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I mean, we didn't do anything like that, but a lot of the business owners, you know, they put on like minority owned or, you know, we support BLM or lots of stuff got put on those boards.
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I don't know if people were maybe a little dishonest on that.
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Yeah, because I guess most people think that just businesses go and do that for themselves.
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So either by the insurance or if they're in a really high risk area, like their insurance company might call to have the boards put up to try and prevent the loss, you know, because it's obviously, you know, when the buildings get burned and stuff like that, sometimes the losses or the insurance claims are millions of dollars.
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So for five or ten thousand dollars, you can get all your windows boarded up.
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Yeah, that could really be the difference between your whole business going down.
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They they're right in Minneapolis there and they lost like one point five million dollars in inventory.
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You want to have somebody wants to have a Doral or, you know.
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Or, you know, roll up a john or something and the next thing you know, the whole place has gone up.
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And I mean, even, you know, I had a gun pulled on me when I was cleaning graffiti down there.
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And I mean, you know, whether or not that's out of turn, I don't care if you put more graffiti up.
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So, just doing your job is really, I mean, your job is basically, like, your job is basically restoration, trauma, cleanup.
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How do you, like, give me an example of kind of what that entails, sort of.
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Well, so, like, the name of the industry is restoration.
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And so, restoration could be fire, water, mold, trauma.
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So, it can be anything from a natural disaster to a pipe burst or, you know, the ground thawing outside or suicides, murders, and stuff like that.
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Basically, if something terrible has happened to your building, where are the guys that call?
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And do you guys go in there feeling like the Ghostbusters?
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Do y'all just feel like a bunch of, like, garbage men?
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Is there kind of a vibe that you feel kind of going into certain environments?
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You know, because, you know, it's like, and fires are generally the worst.
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I mean, like, when you do a trauma cleanup, you're not normally seeing anyone that lives there or anything like that because they're typically almost always gone.
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But, like, when you're doing a fire cleanup or something, you know, and everyone's personal belongings, everything, every picture, every birth certificate, everything's gone, and you're shoveling it out with snow shovels.
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So, stuff like that, environments like that where you're cleaning up a place and there's a lot of personal effects there, it really gets pretty.
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It probably, you know, it probably squeezes your heart, huh?
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Like, you go to a company, something's happened, you go to a business.
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Well, so, just to use that one as an example, so, it was middle of the night, it was a manufacturing facility, and there was a lathe.
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So, a lathe, you know, you make, like, for example, like a baseball bat, so it spins a piece of wood and you're cutting on it.
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Okay, and bring that up, Riley, if you can, on the screen here.
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Yep, that green one is just about the same one there.
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And so, the guy was wearing a glove, and so, he ended up getting caught in that, and so, it pulled his skin off from, like, his elbow all the way off his hand.
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And so, that got caught in there, so it spun around, because, obviously, it was still spinning.
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So, the thing's just spinning around with the...
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Yeah, they spin, like, crazy speeds, like, thousands of RPMs.
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Like, if you had a glove on, you took it off, except for that's your skin.
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And so, that was spinning, and obviously, we shut out by the time we got there, but that blood was all over everywhere.
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So, it was all, you know, the ceiling's 25, 30 feet tall.
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And it was a big manufacturing facility, so they didn't want to shut it down.
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So, we had to, you know, hang plastic all around where we were cleaning, and all that stuff had to be scrubbed down and repainted.
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Okay, so you guys hang plastic around the actual site of whatever's going on.
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Dang, they got to keep that money coming in, huh?
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Yeah, so, I mean, the whole time, it was really crazy.
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You know, we're cleaning skin out of this machine, and on the other side of the plastic, you can hear people talking.
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And what type of, what were they making in there overall, you think?
00:10:00.000
And so, you guys get called in, something like that.
00:10:02.320
What do you do with the actual, do you actually take the skin, the hand?
00:10:06.060
Yeah, so anything that's, like, affected, and there's a bunch of different, like, categorizations of, like, materials.
00:10:13.020
So, like, wood that gets impacted really needs to be cut out and replaced, but, like, concrete, you can clean that.
00:10:18.880
So, anything that gets, you know, that we have to cut out and throw it away, you put it in these special bags, and then you put that in a biohazard box,
00:10:26.300
and then a carrier that specially disposes of that takes it away, and typically they're going to go to, like, an incinerator.
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So, that thing, it doesn't get returned to the rightful owner.
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Have you ever had an employee try to sneak off with something, sneak off with a thumb or something?
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Yeah, or just a middle finger, maybe they're just going to pull it out of the bar or something.
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So, you guys hang up the plastic, and you guys go in there as a team if there's some type of a trauma, like, in a workplace or any place, really.
00:11:02.040
And so, how long does something like that take?
00:11:04.380
Like, are you guys, they try to send you in in the middle of the night and get it done fast?
00:11:10.220
So, there's certain things like manufacturing facilities and stuff, because, like, a big manufacturing facility, you know,
00:11:15.400
they might be making a million-plus dollars a day, hundreds of thousands of dollars an hour in products.
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Tyco, I'm trying to think of some different ones.
00:11:24.440
Hormel, I'm trying to think of different anything.
00:11:33.880
I mean, even a good buddy of mine had a call out to Florida for a machine that broke down, and it was a Kit Kat machine.
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And you're like, who's eating all these Kit Kats?
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And they're all stressed, because the Kit Kat line is shut down.
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My dad, he used to sometimes go park his car at the park, and he would get, like, he had a buddy that used to get kind of old Kit Kats, and they were, like, a couple years old, kind of.
00:12:06.180
But they, you know, you could still eat them, but the chocolate was turning white a little.
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I don't know if it, I mean, I don't know if it had become, like, alcoholic or not, but I know it had, it was a little bit decrepit.
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Just give me something that, um, give me something that I should have had at Christmas, you know?
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But I'll say this, is that, uh, so, yeah, anyway, we would get the Kit Kats, we would take them to the park,
00:12:56.460
And we would, they would see squirrels jumping from just miles away, just in the distance.
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You could see squirrels just hopping over trying to get them.
00:13:04.040
But, um, so anyway, you guys get called in any type of environment.
00:13:07.880
And so that's, like, an example of, like, a business, uh, of, like, a kind of a travesty that happened at a business.
00:13:22.940
I mean, you can call me at three o'clock in the morning.
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I'm not even awake yet, and I got the phone to my ear, you know?
00:13:27.980
And so take me on, so take me on another journey of, like, what, uh, what a trauma restoration man gets.
00:13:33.920
Well, I mean, I would say for the most part, it's people that have been deceased for a long time.
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Uh, almost always, it's the post carriers that are calling it in for a wellness check.
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Yeah, because no one's picked up the mail for a week or a month or whatever it happens to be.
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So, I mean, you know, you get a call, and those aren't really pressing, you know?
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That's not, like, a 3 a.m. call if someone's been dead for a month, you know?
00:14:02.780
And, uh, so, it's kind of wild, you know, when someone dies.
00:14:06.900
First, you, like, blow it up, and, uh, then as you decompose, like, goo starts coming out of everywhere.
00:14:13.500
So, it can be real bad where it's, like, you know, they might have died on a bed or a couch or something,
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and that couch will be soaked with stuff, you know, goo.
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With human goo, and so that goo is, what all is it?
00:14:27.220
And then just, you know, your inside's decomposing on you.
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Now, are you the first people to roll in, or the police roll in first?
00:14:36.800
Well, so the bodies are always going to be gone, so the police are going to do the wellness check,
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and then the coroner's going to come to remove the actual body or whatever that they can remove.
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Typically, they're going to try and remove, like, one large piece.
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So, sometimes, you know, there's still skin, or depending on how long it's still there.
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But, you know, and so, if you died on the second floor, if you've been there for a long time,
00:15:00.180
that stuff will all drip down through the ceiling underneath, and then into the basement, maybe.
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So, the flooring comes out, your subfloor comes out, if it's affected, like, joists.
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Sometimes, you have to do some structural removal, all the way down to the concrete, basically.
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So, and is there, like, legalities where if something dies in a place, if a human dies,
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So, there's really stringent, like, processes that you have to do.
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So, there's specific chemicals that have to be used, that have to meet these certain regulations, or standards.
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And there's a book called the S-500 that is a restoration book.
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So, that's going to have, like, your processes.
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Like, if you had a question, you know, you'd be able to, sorry.
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So, there's really strict processes that have to be followed so you can avoid liability.
00:16:05.760
So, like, you know, on a water loss, if you have bad mold and someone gets sick and you
00:16:10.440
signed off that that building is dry, you can be, you know, either your business or sometimes
00:16:22.480
On a large, like, loss, I'm doing a hotel right now in North Dakota.
00:16:27.320
Um, you know, it's 44 affected rooms and I'm going to submit probably 1,100 pictures.
00:16:34.420
So, and then processes, moisture readings, all that stuff, you know.
00:16:39.800
So, you got to, yeah, you, so you go in there and do a lot of paperwork, too.
00:16:42.520
It's not just you're out there, um, you know, cleaning up the environment.
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You guys are doing a lot of the backlogging as well.
00:16:50.780
There's a ton of documentation that goes along with everything.
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If you got, you got called in, give me a, take me into a story where it was a, a murder
00:17:00.160
or deceased or something like that, you know, a non-living human.
00:17:05.500
Um, well, you know, uh, I've done a bunch of them over the years, but, uh, probably the
00:17:10.740
worst one I've ever done, uh, was in an apartment building.
00:17:13.500
And, uh, you know, so we get the call, the coroner's released the scene.
00:17:19.140
And, uh, this fella met the wrong end of a shotgun.
00:17:24.080
So, all those BBs went through multiple walls and through multiple apartments.
00:17:29.660
So, because those are contaminated and carrying everything, so you have to find, like, where
00:17:35.440
So, I mean, when we got there, you know, so first thing, you know, you're going to clean
00:17:38.780
up as, as much of the, let's call it raw material as you can.
00:17:47.420
So, you got to get up all the, all the living stuff, whatever could have been living or semi-living,
00:17:53.740
So, I mean, you're scraping that floor off, you know, you're using, like, a flat blade shovel
00:18:02.900
So, then you're setting up ozone machines, air filtration, you're setting up an environment
00:18:08.560
so, like, if we're in this room, you need plastic over the doors and stuff so that you're
00:18:20.260
You kind of get that kind of, like, a plastic off the scene.
00:18:31.840
You can barely see it because it's actually see-through plastic.
00:18:36.060
You know, we just call it, like, poly and it comes to different thicknesses.
00:18:39.020
Yeah, they used to call it Visqueen back in the day, but...
00:18:42.000
Okay, so you guys will kind of cordone off the scene and then what?
00:18:45.660
So, then you're going to set up, you need to have air filtration, HEPA, air scrubbers.
00:18:50.440
And this guy had taken his life or he'd been shot?
00:18:54.420
Yeah, and so then you have to go through and find, you know, where did those all stop and did
00:19:00.180
You know, and we ended up having to do some patching on the roof, too.
00:19:04.300
So, a guy took his own life and is there still people in the building or no?
00:19:08.220
It was an apartment building and it was real gnarly.
00:19:11.220
So, then after you've identified everything, you're making sure the roof's not going to
00:19:14.600
leak and stuff because you don't want any secondary damage.
00:19:17.360
Um, then, then it's just all about taking everything apart.
00:19:22.260
So, every affected stud needs to be taken out, replaced, all the drywall that's affected
00:19:35.140
So, he was the only one in that apartment, but there was other people in the rest of the
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Okay, so yeah, take me into a scenario where you had to go where there was a, where there
00:22:41.280
was, yeah, take me into one of the, like, kind of the gnarlier scenarios that you had
00:22:49.760
Yeah, so the, easily, easily, the only one that's ever really bothered me, the one that
00:22:54.520
really kept me up was a guy, unfortunately, took his life in his basement with his family
00:23:00.140
upstairs, and he had two kids, you know, teenage children and his wife were there.
00:23:07.960
They, so the whole time that we were there working, they stayed.
00:23:18.240
Yeah, and, but, you know, and normally, they would always move out, you know, until everything's
00:23:28.040
So you rolled up to the place, and who were you with?
00:23:35.200
So I'll generally just go for, like, I'll check it out, and if I need labor, I'll call
00:23:41.200
But I generally don't ever ask anyone to do these gnarly ones with me.
00:23:46.600
Damn, you're like damn Satan's minion, baby, out there.
00:23:50.560
You know, I'll have people, but, like, I never want, I never like to ask other people to do
00:23:55.140
this kind of stuff, because it can really kind of weigh on you.
00:23:58.660
Right now, I can only fathom that, and we'll get into that a little bit, but, so you get
00:24:04.640
So, like I said, and generally, I'm dealing either with the police or the coroners.
00:24:08.820
Um, this is the only situation where I've, like, met a family member at a, like, a suicide
00:24:17.380
Um, sometimes if someone's died of natural causes, you know, I'll meet a son or a daughter
00:24:22.780
Um, but this one, I knock on the door, and this lady answers it, answers the door, and
00:24:30.400
Like, he's killed himself yesterday, and they're all still in the house.
00:24:33.640
Um, and so, you know, I'm down working in the basement, and I'm carrying up boxes and
00:24:39.120
bags of, you know, contaminated stuff past them.
00:24:42.800
Wow, so you're just bringing up, like, basically stuff that has, like, human matter on it?
00:24:50.880
And did he, did the man gun himself in the head?
00:24:56.820
And so, a lot of your head just kind of goes wherever?
00:25:00.480
Does your head go in one piece, or does it go in a bunch of pieces?
00:25:02.840
No, and it depends on the type of gun or the caliber, but typically, it's just gonna,
00:25:08.000
you know, if you shot yourself with, like, a hollow point, you'll, like, blow a hole
00:25:13.280
But if it's, like, just a normal handgun or something, it's actually a pretty clean hole
00:25:18.780
But, um, yeah, it's, this was, yeah, so at the end of every day, I had to tell, you know,
00:25:23.940
she's asking me questions, and it's just, like, I, you know, you're looking at her in
00:25:28.140
the eye and saying, it's like, oh, we're gonna be finishing taking your husband out tomorrow,
00:25:34.140
And did they come down and want to do any prayers, or did they want to, like, spend any
00:25:38.760
Was there, was it, did they like the husband, you know, or did it seem like they had a good
00:25:51.920
I mean, that's a man, yeah, I'm just trying to, yeah, I guess we don't know all the circumstance,
00:25:56.200
but if a man, yeah, took his life, his family's right there, I can only imagine this how, and
00:26:01.280
then, or, I just wonder if they're looking at you like you're helpful, or like, who knows?
00:26:07.840
Yeah, but that, man, I still think about that one.
00:26:12.540
Yeah, and did the kids try to communicate with you or anything?
00:26:16.140
No, I mean, they were obviously grieving, but I mean, it was, it was wild that they wouldn't
00:26:20.040
go to a hotel or stay with family or something.
00:26:22.620
Yeah, at least hit a damn Fairfield Inn and Suites or a Days Inn, you know, and I love
00:26:28.360
Hampton, and actually, but yeah, I can't imagine if that happened that I wouldn't want some
00:26:33.060
space, or maybe you want to be as close as you, you know, I don't know.
00:26:41.740
One and only time, and hopefully the last time that ever happened.
00:26:44.280
Because it really made it, it really added, like, another layer to it, another pressure.
00:26:48.740
Yeah, you know, because you, like I said, you get really desensitized to it, and, you
00:26:53.540
know, it's just like, you're just cleaning up a mess, you know, but when they're there,
00:27:13.680
Yeah, yeah, it really gave me the heebie-jeebies.
00:27:16.660
And so, on a cleanup like that, where do you go for lunch on a day like that?
00:27:20.360
Like, what is, is there, do you have like a, are there some days you go for different
00:27:23.700
lunches, or, but say if it's a, you know, do you have a typical spot you like to go?
00:27:37.800
Well, look, I'm just saying, if you know, what goes with cleaning up a deceased, you
00:27:57.140
Do you, do you come into like trauma where the people are still alive, or is it all kind
00:28:02.240
Uh, well, so trauma probably makes up sub 10% of what I do on a weekly basis.
00:28:11.120
Restoration as a whole, you meet a lot of strange people.
00:28:18.320
Okay, so that is specified, that is trauma cleanup.
00:28:23.320
And if you're non-deceased, this could be part of restoration.
00:28:27.880
Yeah, so every, so restoration covers that, it's a big umbrella of a bunch of different
00:28:32.220
stuff, but, you know, I've done some really gnarly animal hoarders.
00:28:36.520
Really, like where the floor or walls are rotting out, because there's so much, you
00:28:47.540
So I stayed in my buddy Johnny's house one time, right?
00:28:51.520
I don't know if anybody had ever stayed there, except Johnny and one of his folks.
00:28:58.660
One of the dogs had been urinating in there for probably seven or eight years, right?
00:29:05.080
There was like a sewing machine, and like somebody like quilted like a little thing
00:29:15.800
The carpet had like, almost had a yellow dust in the air from all the piss.
00:29:29.000
And I know a lot of bitches are buying these these days and wearing them around their neck
00:29:42.880
Yeah, urine dries in that, oh, and it's terrible.
00:29:46.960
So every time you get humidity, they attract, or they kind of rehydrate.
00:29:50.640
So every time it gets humid, you just smell it.
00:29:55.580
Well, look, because I remember being at my buddy's place, and I would breathe.
00:29:59.640
And sometimes I had to blow my nose, the air was so thick, because I would have to, I would
00:30:04.660
remember being like, oh, my God, something feels like it's like my nose is, and it would
00:30:08.360
be, I would just be blowing animal piss right out of my own nose.
00:30:14.780
Yeah, I got a call, this is a few years ago now, that the HOA required, like, it was
00:30:21.920
like a house, you know, and the HOA had sent her complaints because you could smell
00:30:29.640
And I got there, and I mean, she must have had 30, 40 cats there, two dozen dogs.
00:30:34.980
Now, when you roll up, are the cats on the outside, or it's all inside?
00:30:38.980
And unfortunately, I mean, this lady had something going on upstairs.
00:30:43.320
And the other thing you run into a lot is nudity.
00:30:52.240
Let's walk through that a little bit, so I can just have an experience of what that's
00:31:07.520
So I call her on the way there, and I'm like, hey, this is Rob.
00:31:12.880
And so I get there, and I'm knocking on the door, and she is yelling through the door,
00:31:22.160
And I was like, I just talked to you 30 minutes ago.
00:31:31.340
And she's like, I just need to go get dressed real quick.
00:31:50.240
And so I step inside and I can smell it outside.
00:32:21.000
Most parrots won't attack cats for the fun of it, but may attack out of fear or self-defense,
00:32:27.920
even if the cat isn't actually trying to cause harm.
00:32:39.800
So she comes back in a robe and she's like, I got three places I need you to clean.
00:32:43.640
And at the time, I was there for a carpet cleaning call.
00:32:50.160
And as we're walking, I mean, the carpet is wet.
00:33:15.600
And so she walks me over the landing of the stairs.
00:33:17.960
And as I'm walking out of the land of the stairs, she is like standing between me and
00:33:23.340
And I like walk up and I'm standing on the stairs and the stairs are soft.
00:33:29.240
And she's like, oh, I just need to get this cleaned up.
00:33:31.680
And I was just like, I don't think that this is like carpet cleaning territory anymore.
00:33:36.260
She's like, well, how much do you think that's going to cost?
00:33:38.020
And I was like, well, I'm going to need to get bids.
00:33:42.360
And she's like, well, how much do you think that's going to be?
00:33:44.480
I was like, maybe $10,000, $11,000 off the top of my head.
00:33:48.480
She's like, I thought I had a coupon for $179 for three rooms.
00:33:53.500
And I was like, carpet cleaning is not going to help this.
00:33:57.460
And so now it's like, I'm starting to panic because this lady is just, yeah, she's like,
00:34:05.320
And the piss is, you know, two and a half feet.
00:34:19.680
It wouldn't be the first time I've had to clean up someone that's incontinent.
00:34:26.220
So now you guys have to go in and what, get all the animals out?
00:34:30.360
Oh, well, in that case, she, we did not do anything.
00:34:33.400
She just wanted us, she just wanted the carpets cleaned.
00:34:36.800
I am, I am, I am positive that she got moved out of that.
00:34:42.680
I mean, that's, that's a situation where social services gets involved.
00:34:54.360
And so is it a mental, well, is it mentally unwell?
00:34:59.940
Did you, do you get any idea what the root cause of it is?
00:35:06.740
And they want the cats and are they enjoying the cats?
00:35:10.360
Are they petting them or is it more just, they, they're trying to have a little, little
00:35:22.220
Like I said, I mean, it's just, it's compulsive.
00:35:24.640
You just keep bringing them home and they can't care for them.
00:35:27.700
You know, sometimes, you know, you'll find an Anna and hoarder situations, you know, you'll
00:35:32.060
find cats or dogs that have been dead for a long time and they don't even realize they've
00:35:38.040
You know, you'll be clearing stuff out and all of a sudden you come across a little corpse.
00:35:43.220
And they'll, and they'll say, Hey, your cat's dead.
00:35:45.200
And they'll be like, Oh, I threw a ball and it didn't get it or something.
00:35:49.540
Well, you know, they don't even have names for all the kids, you know?
00:35:53.460
Dude, we had this lady when I was growing up, she used to give us a dime, right?
00:35:59.100
So she said, yeah, I got like 30 cats, you know, bring them in here to me.
00:36:05.300
Well, she only had three cats, but we'd let, we go show her the cat, get that dime and then
00:36:12.840
And we just kept running these three cats till we had probably a buck 50 and then go get
00:36:18.060
We'd do a video rental or sometime you get a video and a pound of shrimp over there.
00:36:22.080
They had a place called Pat's Video and Shrimp.
00:36:36.460
I don't know if you still get a video store going on out there.
00:36:40.460
I just thought they might have some old imagery.
00:36:44.060
So you really are kind of like a, do you get a feeling that you're like a rescuer or that
00:36:52.020
you have, does it start to create any kind of feeling of like a social or human responsibility
00:36:59.360
Or does it just feel like you are, when it's dealing with humans, does it just feel like
00:37:07.300
you are kind of like a, does it feel janitorial?
00:37:11.820
Does it get human at all, some of the feeling of it?
00:37:16.100
And I mean, I joke about this a lot with my buddies, but I just never say no.
00:37:20.000
And it's just like all these jobs have just escalated.
00:37:27.060
I work as a subcontractor for other companies, typically as like a project manager.
00:37:35.920
And, you know, so it's just the jobs over time have just gotten worse and worse and worse
00:37:40.900
It's just like, so like when companies don't have anyone that feels comfortable doing like
00:37:45.580
a small restoration company, they don't have anyone that maybe wants to do trauma or something
00:37:52.060
Bobby Cotton, the unfazable Bobby Cotton, dude.
00:38:05.220
Have you ever found anything unique in a property?
00:38:07.780
You undid some flooring or something, found a treasure, found a skeleton or something?
00:38:15.580
I mean, like I said, I found a lot of small animals, you know, found like a significant
00:38:22.000
amount of money that like someone had left before.
00:38:27.560
What about some more like human, take me on a call you get, you go to a place and there's
00:38:32.640
a human there and you have to interact with a human and maybe something outside of animalia
00:38:44.960
And so we get the call early in the morning and it's a sewage call.
00:38:48.200
So that just means there's different categories of water losses.
00:38:57.080
And so we get the call and I get out there and I got one other guy coming with me.
00:39:00.620
And so I get out there first and I walk into the desk and it's a condo building.
00:39:06.260
And, uh, they're like, Hey, I just want to let you know that the source unit is up on
00:39:12.520
It was like, so alarm bells are already going off.
00:39:21.240
I look around, you know, a couple of different floors.
00:39:22.840
And so I got to go check to see the source unit now.
00:39:25.580
So I knock on the door and it's an old folks home and I knock on the door and the guy answers
00:39:34.600
And it was like, and the smell from in here is just horrendous.
00:39:42.860
And so walk in and I asked him like, where's, where's the, where, where did it start from?
00:39:54.400
And does it seem like he's well and he has a diaper on?
00:40:02.080
So we walk in and there's piles of newspaper, piles of mail, and the floor is soaked.
00:40:09.300
And, uh, so walk in and he's gonna, he's like, oh, it's back here.
00:40:27.540
And so we're walking past and we walk back into the back bedroom and there's a-
00:40:34.280
Sitting in this water, a pile of them, two feet tall.
00:40:36.900
And, uh, and everything, these newspapers are all sitting there.
00:40:41.480
So now he shows me where it is and this toilet is just, so now I'm looking for a broken toilet
00:40:47.160
because if you've ever backed up a toilet, it doesn't just keep flowing over.
00:40:54.420
And so this, the original cornhole game, it looks like.
00:41:00.040
And so I look at the toilet, I'm looking for it to be broken.
00:41:04.300
And I asked him like, well, so how did all the water happen?
00:41:06.520
And he's like, well, it plugged up at like 10 o'clock last night.
00:41:10.640
And, and I was like, well, how did it flood everything?
00:41:15.480
So for like six hours, this dude is just flushing this toilet over and over and over again.
00:41:21.160
And like, it's a, like a video poker or something, huh?
00:41:29.380
And just winning, just, just winning his own money, just winning his own, just winning
00:41:36.300
So it's, so it's a full, it's a toilet and there's duty in it.
00:41:41.760
I mean, it's just like somebody shotgun blasted duty all over everything.
00:41:49.960
We are shoveling all this stuff into bags because it's all sitting in all this water.
00:41:54.540
I mean, we're talking years of newspaper, years of mail.
00:41:59.380
And it's all, and all the water kind of has a little bit of feces in it.
00:42:07.120
And the last thing we've got to do, and my buddy's there now.
00:42:10.000
And the last thing we've got to do is pick up these diapers.
00:42:13.040
So he's holding a bag and he's like trying to do it.
00:42:15.300
And we're in full Tyvek suits, you know, so we're in plastic suits, respirators, everything.
00:42:19.740
And he's standing and he's like, ah, I can't do it.
00:42:23.780
And I'm standing there because we were like arguing about who's going to do it.
00:42:26.400
And, you know, so I go down and I reach for the very first diaper and I'm wearing gloves
00:42:30.600
and I, I go to pick it up right in the middle and it's like a burrito.
00:42:33.880
Oh, and this man is now naked from the waist down watching us.
00:42:38.440
So he has lost the diaper and he has told us that he can't wear the pants sometimes because
00:42:46.520
So, so would the pants prevent him from doing it, I guess?
00:43:03.520
You know what they do have a chart something people use sometimes I've seen?
00:43:10.920
If it's a pecker, if it's a pecherini or whatever.
00:43:13.960
Zoom in on that a little if we can get some names off this bad boy.
00:43:35.920
I wish they had something that had some names on it.
00:43:59.600
Oh, that looks like, those look like realistic ones.
00:44:19.620
Let's see if we can see some of the names on there.
00:44:46.280
Damn, he had that beat, that ballpark Frank on him, huh?
00:44:55.240
Okay, and do you have, do you feel the responsibility to stay in there?
00:44:59.540
Do you feel like the guy is, like, going to attack or anything like that?
00:45:04.480
I feel confident in my ability to fend off a 75-year-old man.
00:45:11.060
So, I pick up, I go to pick up the very first diapers.
00:45:13.880
Now, there's probably 75 of these things we've got to pick up.
00:45:17.720
And because it's sopping wet, it has lost its structural integrity.
00:45:20.860
So, I go to pick it up, and my fingers just sink right into it.
00:45:24.400
And I just, I've got a strong stomach after doing this for a long time.
00:45:30.460
So, I rip off my mask, and I just, like, take the one step over to the toilet.
00:45:36.500
And I just open this toilet, and it's just covered in shit.
00:45:42.740
And I look over to the guy, the guy I'm working with is standing there.
00:45:48.120
And he tries to get his mask off, and he pukes straight into the mask.
00:46:01.220
And you puked right into the toilet that was already pretty full?
00:46:06.240
And so, then I look up, and I'm on my hands and knees thrown up in this toilet.
00:46:09.980
And I look over the door again, and this dude is standing in the doorway.
00:46:14.500
I am right looking this dude's willy right in the eye.
00:46:23.000
But it's like, he's the Ryan Sandberg of creepy shit if he started doing that.
00:46:29.420
Yeah, this is just like a normal Tuesday afternoon for this guy.
00:46:34.700
And do you think low-key, he had people come all the time and created this kind of scenario?
00:46:40.620
I mean, that's one of the worst ones I've ever done.
00:46:43.760
And so, how does that scenario get from right there to actual some sort of solution?
00:46:47.420
Well, I mean, so, everything has to be taken out.
00:46:50.400
So, like, all the flooring, all the carpet, all that concrete needs to get cleaned.
00:46:58.020
So, all that drywall that gets cut out, you know, you just got to replace it, repaint it, new carpeting.
00:47:03.380
So, at some point, you guys left that premises and it was nice again.
00:47:16.740
And how much are you wearing, like, are you, what kind of suit are you wearing?
00:47:23.980
Well, so, like, the ones that you pump air into, so, like, if you're dealing with something, like, really hazardous, it's called a positive air suit.
00:47:30.980
Um, you know, if you're doing, like, somebody dropped a vial or something of some dangerous disease, I mean, I haven't done that before, but, um, we're wearing what's called a Tyvek suit.
00:47:43.120
So, it's got boots, it's just one continuous suit with a hood on it, and then a respirator, and a set of rubber gloves.
00:47:56.140
So, do meth heads ever roll up to you while you're going in and out of the building trying to holler it?
00:48:01.220
Like, is there ever that kind of vibe where people think you're making drugs?
00:48:03.600
No, no, nothing like that, but, you know, it tends to attract attention.
00:48:08.940
You know, you're carrying boxes out or bags out in a full Tyvek suit.
00:48:14.480
I'm sure you get a lot of onlookers or people that are stopping, you know, you're wanting a curious folk.
00:48:21.400
Yeah, because you don't, like, the property owner doesn't want people to know that someone's died or that there's been a loss.
00:48:27.300
Or even some customers, like big customers, they've got, like, stealth protocols.
00:48:33.060
They don't want any company vehicles parked outside.
00:48:35.720
They don't want you to wear anything that says a logo on it or anything.
00:48:39.400
They don't want people to know that something's happened.
00:48:41.260
Yeah, because I guess people don't want to mess up their resale value or get a lot, like, maybe somebody, or if it's a product, if they're making, you know, honey-baked hams or something and somebody loses a limb, they don't want people saying, oh, they got limbs in the ham or whatever, you know, like, you know, people.
00:48:59.140
Don't anyone claim that there's a fingernail in their ham, you know?
00:49:02.920
They don't want people, yeah, they don't want people kind of, I guess, just ruining their business, you know, that they work so hard for.
00:49:13.880
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00:52:19.560
Has there been a job that you said, you know what?
00:52:25.980
You know, when you're wading through, you know, four feet of sewage and like chest waders.
00:52:33.280
And when you're doing that, do you feel like God is with you or you feel like you strayed from the pack?
00:52:37.620
Do you feel any human response, like a personal, like, okay, maybe I'm making some choices that are kind of wild.
00:52:43.180
Do you think, like, that you're kind of like the Bear Grylls of, like, you know, duty and death?
00:52:54.060
Well, I feel like I should have finished high school.
00:53:01.680
I've been joking about getting my GED for years, but, you know, I've got my life together real well.
00:53:07.000
And I always joke that, you know, people with GEDs, you know, they always used to say that, you know,
00:53:11.660
if you only have a high school diploma or a GED, you'll make a million dollars less than if you went to college.
00:53:16.020
And I was like, well, I don't want to do that then.
00:53:19.780
Why go get that if I'm going to guarantee make a million less?
00:53:23.820
Never hear anything about people that don't finish high school.
00:53:26.120
Dude, well, that's freaking interesting, man, because you really have kind of, it seems like, carved out your own space.
00:53:30.880
Yeah, take me on a little bit of a journey of, like, what are some of the calls that you, like, you wish you hadn't done?
00:53:39.980
Well, I mean, the one I was just telling you about, there was a pump station.
00:53:44.840
So, where I live at, there's a river, the Minnesota River, and they pump sewage to a facility on the other side of the river.
00:53:52.360
So, there's a gigantic pipe that, for whatever reason, got plugged up.
00:53:55.460
And so, this pump is running, and there is one cul-de-sac before it goes across the river.
00:54:01.040
So, there's only, like, six, seven houses on it that's on the other side of the pump.
00:54:04.980
So, everyone else is on, you know, this side of the pump, then the pump passes across, and there's one more spot where it goes in.
00:54:13.560
So, this pump, a gigantic pump, is pumping, and because it got blocked up, it ended up forcing the sewage into those houses.
00:54:21.000
So, when I talked to the guy that lived there, he said they were sitting around in the house, and then all of a sudden, there was, like, a noise that came from, like, the sink.
00:54:28.340
And it was, like, shooting up, like, a fountain out of everywhere, out of the toilets, out of the sinks, out of everywhere.
00:54:38.760
Like, those chocolate things they have, some of them at a wedding?
00:54:44.320
And so, it was, like, shooting up and hitting the ceilings, and, like, spraying out.
00:54:50.560
And it ended up filling up this guy's basement.
00:54:54.120
So, we got big, you know, pumper trucks, and so they're taking it away.
00:54:58.860
And so, I'm in chest waders holding this hose, like, sucking stuff up, and it keeps getting plugged from stuff in there.
00:55:09.440
Yeah, so, like, I'm down there, like, holding it, because if you just let it go, it'll get stuck to stuff.
00:55:17.340
And, yeah, so I'm wading through sewage, like, six feet of sewage.
00:55:25.400
And do you have any other little henchmen that roll with you, kind of?
00:55:28.060
Or you said it's kind of you roll in and then work with, like, do you then, like, subcontract other guys to help you?
00:55:34.120
Yeah, so, like I said, I generally, I never work under my own contract.
00:55:39.460
So, it's like, if something happened here, and I showed up, and you called whatever restoration company, you'd never know that I worked for a different company.
00:55:47.140
Or that I'm self-employed, because I just typically manage those projects.
00:55:51.680
But I normally show up on the data loss and stabilize the situation, and then there's a lot of cleanup that has to happen, demo, drying, whatever that needs to be.
00:56:00.560
So, I'll typically use either their labor or their subcontract labor.
00:56:05.660
So, I don't typically ever hire anyone personally.
00:56:09.640
Do you notice, when it comes to more of the people that have some real issues, right, is it more men or women?
00:56:16.540
Do you notice, like, do you have any clue where the mental unwellness comes from?
00:56:20.320
Do you start to get any grasp on what could have happened to some of these folks?
00:56:24.880
Yeah, I really don't know if it's, like, a trauma thing, or if it's, you know, just something's never quite been right upstairs or something.
00:56:36.080
But the common thing is, it seems like people, like, they just can't take care of themselves.
00:56:46.020
And when they don't have, like, the resources or the family to help them, everything just spirals out of control.
00:56:51.500
So, and, I mean, just the living situations that people are in, I mean, we really need better mental health something around here.
00:57:00.840
Yeah, we need, I mean, I need, everybody's, we're all trying to get it.
00:57:05.760
What about, take me on another journey, something like, with some of these hoarders.
00:57:09.580
What are some other things that you see people hoarding?
00:57:11.760
Because you had the man with the duty diapers, and what are some other things that people keep that you notice?
00:57:21.820
So, I mean, a lot of times it's, like, just knickknacks or something like that.
00:57:26.260
It's, like, they go to the garage sale and buy the whole garage sale, it feels like.
00:57:35.260
And, I mean, it's, like, yeah, sometimes, like, rooms full of newspapers, you know, for these older folks.
00:57:44.820
Yeah, I've definitely flipped through some of those newspapers.
00:57:49.900
You notice anybody hoarding that kind of stuff, or not really?
00:57:56.600
You know, I've definitely found plenty of, like, Playboys and stuff like that.
00:58:00.420
Another thing I've noticed is men hoard sex toys.
00:58:04.500
Yeah, I've definitely run into that a couple of times.
00:58:15.460
But something phallic, they want to have that sort of deal?
00:58:32.440
They're like a real doll or something like that.
00:58:43.460
And so you've been in a place where guys had a couple sex dolls in there?
00:58:47.460
Another weird thing is, when that movie came out, Fifty Shades of Grey, a ton of people
00:58:58.920
And a lot of people kind of got off on, like, showing you that.
00:59:02.620
And it's like, oh, sorry, I forgot to shut this door.
00:59:12.660
Like, they get excited from you seeing that or, like, stumbling into it.
00:59:16.400
Have you had a lot of, like, is there ever been in a place where somebody's trying to
00:59:20.500
get you in there just to attract you or something or do sexual or something like that?
00:59:27.700
I used to be really weird, so I'd clean a lot of bars.
00:59:34.100
People would ask me, oh, what are you, can I help you?
00:59:39.080
I must have had 200 women say, oh, I hope you're here to clean my carpets.
00:59:46.200
So you think you could have probably had sex with them, though, or at least tried to
00:59:56.380
And it's like, I'm sure there's plenty of men here at this bar for you to talk to.
00:59:59.500
But, like, I'm this new person coming in at bar clothes time.
01:00:06.400
It's also such like a, you know, it's almost a pickup line that a guy at the bar would be
01:00:24.900
That's happened more than once where I've run into somebody who's got, like, shelves and
01:00:32.920
People just have, like, a fixation with, like, bodily fluids.
01:00:36.680
I wonder if it's they don't want to let part of themselves go or they...
01:00:40.960
Because it's fascinating because a lot of college people do it, too.
01:00:50.380
But, yeah, I always wonder why do people keep so much piss by them, some folks.
01:00:55.280
I mean, and it'll just be, like, jars and jars and jars.
01:01:02.880
Just right off a God's still, baby, that frickin' kidney.
01:01:15.080
It's crazy enough to even see somebody peeing in the bathroom really close or, you know,
01:01:19.580
but to see them standing there with a couple jars of their own piss, I feel like
01:01:26.060
You know, we've really lost that experience since we're getting rid of all those troughs
01:01:34.360
Yeah, yeah, where you really experience another man pissing right next to you.
01:01:38.820
The craziest part is when his arm is touching your arm, you can kind of feel the vibration
01:01:46.400
Yeah, yeah, you can really feel, like, how each other's kind of flowing.
01:01:48.980
It's almost like a little go-kart race, kind of.
01:01:50.880
I feel like we're losing our community based on that, you know?
01:01:55.180
Everybody wants to piss in their own separate space.
01:01:57.600
In the future, they're just going to give you a jar when you walk into a Jets game,
01:02:01.000
and you're going to have to, you know, keep it to yourself, basically.
01:02:07.060
Yeah, so I was in North Dakota for another job on Saturday, so I'm sleeping in this,
01:02:13.060
And so I wake up, and I'm sleeping with another guy in the room, and he's like,
01:02:21.660
And I swung my feet off the bed, and I put my feet down into puddles.
01:02:28.640
Yeah, and I was like, did I fall asleep on a job site?
01:02:32.240
And so I walk out in the hallway, and there's an inch of water in this entire floor.
01:02:35.620
And I was like, you've got to be kidding me, right?
01:02:37.800
And so I jokingly text one of the contractors I work for.
01:02:43.340
And I was like, oh, you know, I fell asleep at the motel, and it's flooded, you know?
01:02:47.760
And so I'm just kind of joking with him about it.
01:02:50.720
Like someone local will take care of this, you know?
01:02:52.780
And so me and this other guy hop out in the truck, and we're going to go out to breakfast,
01:02:58.640
And so as we're pulling out, I see a restoration company pulling in.
01:03:03.700
I'm like, I'm going to go talk to that guy real quick.
01:03:06.320
And so I go, and I talk to this guy, and I'm not going to say the company name, but I was
01:03:09.660
like, oh, I'm in town with this restoration company.
01:03:13.700
And he's like, will you walk through this job with me?
01:03:18.420
And the guy's like, oh, I just, I don't think I've got the resources to do this right now.
01:03:24.280
And he's like, is this something you think you can do?
01:03:30.520
So I call that contractor back that I was, I'm like, hey, we're going to do this job up
01:03:38.100
And he's like, and I'm like, this is why I'm your favorite subcontractor.
01:03:42.760
And so, but we had to get equipment all shipped up from Iowa and generators all up there.
01:03:48.320
And, you know, my guy at Sunbelt Rentals really pulled through.
01:03:56.280
You can rent a lawnmower from them, or you can rent a generator big enough to power a skyscraper.
01:04:09.360
Rick is usually somebody that's, Rick can go either way.
01:04:13.180
I've met some real dicey Ricks, and I've met some real quality Ricks.
01:04:16.660
Yeah, that's where I'm going back after this, though.
01:04:20.860
I got to finish that job up, and then I'm down to Phoenix for a job.
01:04:24.000
And so what's, is it hard to keep a personal life?
01:04:27.580
No, I got two roommates to take care of my house.
01:04:31.400
So do you, do you feel like you could stay in restoration forever?
01:04:35.120
Does it wear on you as a human after a while, or at a certain point, it's just kind of?
01:04:39.520
Yeah, I mean, I definitely can't do this forever.
01:04:42.100
I mean, the hours I work sometimes, I mean, it's not uncommon to throw in 100 hours in a week.
01:04:48.500
So, I mean, I've got to, like, have a retirement strategy.
01:04:51.380
I'm putting money together to buy real estate right now.
01:04:54.840
That's kind of my exit strategy, to start buying apartment buildings, and then once
01:04:57.980
I've got enough income from that, I'll just manage those.
01:05:01.180
And I guess you get so much recon and research because you're in and out of them all the
01:05:09.460
Has it been hard to date with that type of a lifestyle, or do you just kind of, I mean,
01:05:14.540
has it been hard to have a serious relationship?
01:05:17.540
You know, I was like, I don't know, I'm on those apps a little bit, and, you know, I've met
01:05:22.140
some girls, and then, you know, it ends up not working out.
01:05:27.840
You'd think some women would like that kind of a man that's, you know, he's here and then
01:05:34.860
And, I mean, the money's great in this industry, but, yeah, there's no personal life.
01:05:38.680
So, it's like, we can go on vacation and really ball out of control, but it's like,
01:05:42.300
I'm not going to be home every weekend or at the end of the night every night, you know?
01:05:45.960
Well, shoot, if some ladies watch this, man, we'll have to have them chime in.
01:05:49.180
If you ladies want to chat with Rob Cotton, and you want them to come over and restore
01:06:02.620
Yeah, a question I'm thinking of is, do you think that you could hide a body?
01:06:10.780
I am positive that I could make a body disappear.
01:06:22.320
Just, like, doing it, like, how you clean up a body.
01:06:28.940
Yeah, I mean, it's just, like, doing it, you know?
01:06:31.760
It's like, if you can clean blood and guts off of walls or a floor, you can just clean
01:06:42.780
But I think that the actual, like, the actual, like, logistics of making a body disappear,
01:06:52.140
But, uh, obviously, it's the making someone disappear.
01:06:59.200
Do you ever, like, look at a coroner or someone like that who comes in before you on a human
01:07:05.500
trauma site and think, like, man, I wish that that...
01:07:08.600
Like, do you ever want to get into that line of work?
01:07:10.880
Is there anything about it that makes you think that you kind of moved a little further
01:07:24.240
I have no real interest in restoration, really.
01:07:28.260
If someone offered me five more dollars an hour to dig ditches, I would dig ditches.
01:07:34.020
I can't think of a different industry with my set of, you know, circumstances or qualifications
01:07:44.400
What, yeah, what can a restorator make if they have a good business going?
01:07:49.140
Well, I mean, as a company, I mean, I think one person, like, with no employees, if you
01:07:55.840
were just subbing everything out, you could probably do seven figures a year.
01:08:00.160
So, that's if you really base it well and do large loss restoration, because a ton of
01:08:07.300
And, you know, if you've got good demo companies and stuff like that to do, like, your actual
01:08:11.380
flood cuts or anything else like that, I think practically one person could probably clear
01:08:20.940
And how far away can you smell piss from, you think, honestly?
01:08:25.280
I, like, I, I can, it really bothers me when I, like, walk into a house, because I'm so
01:08:32.040
dialed into, like, that, that ammonia smell a long ways away.
01:08:38.740
Like, like, if your dog goes outside into the backyard and you're like, I can, like, I feel
01:08:43.800
like when I walk into a yard, I can tell if a dog lives in that house.
01:08:50.100
That's a skill to be able to smell piss from, so how many feet would you say?
01:09:07.740
Yeah, yeah, I guess I was hoping for, I guess part of me honestly was hoping for more.
01:09:14.120
I was like, oh, yeah, he could snout a batch of frickin' body sauce at a quarter mile.
01:09:19.420
Um, do you think there's a time of year when more trauma happens that you notice more human
01:09:29.800
That's when I get the most suicide calls, for sure.
01:09:34.340
I mean, I guess that that's kind of a known thing that people take their life around the
01:09:38.520
Yeah, I think it's just like, you know, people are depressed and, you know, they're not
01:09:42.120
happy with like their family situation or whatever.
01:09:45.500
And if people doing suicide, do they do more, do you ever see any rope suicide still or
01:09:52.440
Generally, I'm only going to get calls for gun stuff because there's not generally a lot
01:10:00.560
I mean, this is kind of dark, but it's really inconsiderate to kill yourself with a gun in
01:10:05.400
a house, you know, because like now someone's got to deal with all that.
01:10:11.680
People just think about themselves when they're killing themselves, you know, unfortunately.
01:10:14.340
And, uh, which is part of the issue anyway, why, you know, they're just kind of stuck
01:10:18.700
in their own head and what's in, in their own pain.
01:10:24.600
You running any things like that, like extensive, cause I've seen bird, like dude, I remember
01:10:28.940
one time I parked over by, I guess I was going into a save a center or something or, uh, it
01:10:38.840
Um, I don't know how folks like to go all the time, Rouse's.
01:10:44.800
But anyway, I parked, dude, I swear to God, I was in here probably 16 minutes.
01:10:49.380
I came out and birds had completely shit up my vehicle.
01:11:01.980
So I don't know if you can just like scrape it off or something that, you know, you don't
01:11:07.900
I guess I'm thinking in a business that birds have been like sneaking up in an area and defecating
01:11:14.460
And then a chandelier falls in or something, you know, it's like, or, you know, a ceiling
01:11:26.740
Maybe they have a different level of respect for the place.
01:11:34.860
What do you enjoy doing on your personal time, brother?
01:11:42.160
I'm planning on going to EDC, which is a big music festival.
01:11:47.300
And will y'all do like a lot of, do you get into some of the drug culture, the pill culture?
01:11:55.840
Have you ever had any drug experiences where you had to call 911 on yourself?
01:12:05.240
I mean, shit, I, I've gotten myself into trouble with too many like edibles.
01:12:14.200
When you start, I can't believe I got a call for that.
01:12:16.320
Hey, we got a guy over here who's just had too many edibles.
01:12:24.320
He ate like a little bit of an edible up in, uh, Toronto.
01:12:28.080
And next thing you know, he was just walking in a circle for about an hour and a half in
01:12:39.340
I don't think doing that, having those beverages and just keep moving like that.
01:12:50.260
Or do you like, like, are you getting into some like real, uh, Nordic kind of German trance
01:12:56.440
I mean, definitely my favorite for sure is Timmy Trumpet.
01:13:09.040
He gets up on stage with like, uh, an actual like trumpet or trombone.
01:13:16.980
Like, uh, I'm seeing Steve Aoki in Minneapolis in a couple, a couple of weeks.
01:13:25.920
And, uh, so you just kind of travel around and do this.
01:13:30.780
How many different places will you go in a year?
01:13:39.360
Um, this, this one is like the first one I've done in Arizona.
01:13:42.840
Um, I used to, before this, before I did this, I, uh, I, uh, I built in, like, maintained
01:13:53.780
You mean, like, in towns that have water towers, smaller towns?
01:13:57.480
And then transmission towers and television towers, like, changing light bulbs.
01:14:10.020
So, what's that, like, take me through a water tower.
01:14:12.080
So, a water tower, like, in a small town, or, I guess, does it matter, small town or
01:14:18.740
I mean, obviously, they have them in large towns, but, you know, it was, a lot of times
01:14:23.300
they would, like, just kind of put them on a hill, and it wasn't even really a water
01:14:34.700
That's how, so, like, the reason the water tower is up in the air is because that's what
01:14:42.660
The pump pumps it up in the air, and then it's just gravity is how you've got your, like,
01:14:51.440
If there were no water tower in their town, they wouldn't have any water pressure.
01:14:54.380
Is that the same in cities and in smaller towns?
01:14:56.560
Well, if you're that small of a town, you might have a well, and then you'd have a pump.
01:14:59.960
But if you've got, like, city water, yeah, that's how that works.
01:15:11.600
And so, a larger place, will they have more water towers per population, or?
01:15:16.020
And then, when you get into a big enough town, like, in, like, New York City or whatever,
01:15:20.240
the water towers that provide the, the water towers are on top of the buildings.
01:15:25.360
It's like those tanks that are on top of the building.
01:15:32.240
So, it'll even get more localized to the actual building where you get that little tank up
01:15:40.360
So, you get to a small town, you roll up on a water tower, and there's a lot of bees and
01:15:46.200
There's bees, and then the wind is what really kills you.
01:15:48.440
It's really not that bad, because I worked on a service crew, so we didn't generally build
01:15:55.840
So, a lot of it was just, like, doing inspections, and I didn't do the inspections.
01:16:01.760
I was just, like, support, or changing light bulbs, you know?
01:16:06.000
You know, those red blinking light bulbs on tall structures, there's heavy fines if those
01:16:20.680
Right, but who fines, say, if the water tower or light goes out, who gets fined for it?
01:16:27.100
So, like, if it's a water tower, it would be the city, and that's fines from the FAA.
01:16:33.980
Transmission towers are going to be owned by, like, the radio station or the television
01:16:37.960
So, once you get up to the actual tower, is there usually, like, a platform around the
01:16:45.220
So, it depends, but generally, yes, there's, like, a walkway on the top and around the, like,
01:17:00.140
Because it usually rounds up, bring up a water tower.
01:17:16.060
So, there's going to be a walkway, and then there's two walkways there.
01:17:21.680
And then there's generally an access panel on the top.
01:17:27.780
So, that one doesn't have the second, that one doesn't have the second walkway, but there's
01:17:33.160
So, there's a ladder that goes up there, and then there's a second ladder that'll take
01:17:38.400
And then, if you zoom way in on that picture up at the very tip top, that should be an
01:17:48.840
So, when they do the inspections, they actually scuba dive in the tank.
01:17:59.380
So, somebody goes in there, and what are they looking for?
01:18:03.540
Uh, corrosion, any, uh, like, foreign materials.
01:18:08.480
Generally, it's just an inspection on the welds or the bolts.
01:18:15.940
And do you guys ever find anything in those things?
01:18:19.760
I mean, sometimes it would be, like, something that got pumped up, like some debris or a stick.
01:18:26.180
But nothing like the level of stuff you're finding now?
01:18:32.220
You know, the transmission towers, you know, there'd be 1,100, 1,500.
01:18:36.340
I think the tallest one in the United States is in North Dakota.
01:18:40.600
And that one's, like, I might be speaking out of turn, but it's, like, 2,050 feet.
01:18:47.440
So, these, you're not at a ton of risk up there for, like, you said wind is a little bit issue when you're on these water towers.
01:18:56.300
Do you kind of, like, attach yourself as you're going up?
01:19:02.600
Yeah, you want to try and keep, like, 100% connection.
01:19:06.220
So, like, you've got a harness on, and then it's got a Y-hook onto it.
01:19:10.420
And then that Y-hook, so you hook one up, and then you climb a little bit, you hook the other one up.
01:19:15.480
So, you're always connected, even when you're moving it.
01:19:23.340
And so, when you get to the transmission towers, that's even, that's way up there.
01:19:32.700
Yeah, look up television tower, television transmission tower.
01:19:36.540
Yeah, so the taller your, like, antenna is, or your broadcast pole, the less power it takes to go further.
01:19:53.900
And can you hear television when you're up there?
01:19:57.820
But a lot of times, they'll have cell phone towers, or, like, cell phone antennas on there.
01:20:02.380
You've got to be careful about that, because normally, they'll only want to shut off one side, so you've got to climb on one side.
01:20:07.720
And if you accidentally climb in front of one of those, like, cell phone transmitters, you'll get a sunburn through your clothes, yeah.
01:20:19.840
So, like, just for, like, a second, and you, like, you go in front of it, because they're so high-powered, you're, like, microwaving yourself.
01:20:25.660
So, you'll, like, take your shirt off, and you're sunburned.
01:20:33.400
I mean, it would probably take a while, but it'd be a crummy way to go.
01:20:38.380
Just all the calls and everything, all the information?
01:20:43.860
They find you, and you just have a Nike advertisement on your chest?
01:20:47.700
You just have something for, yeah, for ButcherBox?
01:20:54.760
Dude, you've done some pretty unique jobs, man.
01:20:59.880
And is that a motto of yours overall in your life, kind of, a little bit?
01:21:06.500
You know, it's like, that's the only way that I feel like I've been able to, like, maintain, like, a, like, my personal life.
01:21:16.740
And, you know, it's like, well, my friends are going to a show or something like that, and so we'll go out to go to the show.
01:21:22.160
Show's done at, like, 1.30, and then I'll go back to work sometimes.
01:21:26.300
And, you know, but it's like, if I don't just do it, then it's like, you're just not going to have a personal life.
01:21:32.000
And it's, yeah, it's the same thing, you know, it's like, when you work, like, a lot of times I work seven days a week, you know, and it's like, I still want to go out to brunch and stuff like that, you know, and even if you're tired or whatever, it is like, but if you don't, like, work to maintain it, it'll just go away, you know?
01:21:48.220
Yeah, because I find sometimes I'll get too caught up in what I'm thinking or feeling instead of just staying busy with my work, you know?
01:21:54.080
And a lot of times just staying busy will keep you out of, like, you know, I'll get caught up in, like, self-pity or just thinking about myself too much.
01:22:00.580
It's like, I guess the busier you stay, it really does just kind of keep things moving.
01:22:05.280
Yeah, yeah, and it's like, I've tried a lot of stuff.
01:22:18.020
Because a lot of times we think that things just get done somehow.
01:22:25.060
But to think that somebody actually comes and takes care of certain things, yeah, it's interesting, man, because a lot of us would never know what that's like.
01:22:34.040
Well, and it's like my next step, what I really want to get into is I'm working on getting into large laws, so, like, you know, million-dollar projects and stuff like that.
01:22:41.240
But I really want to do cat work, and that's like the hurricanes and stuff.
01:22:44.560
So, I mean, like, when there's the hurricanes rolling through Louisiana, someone's got to clean up all that stuff.
01:22:50.840
My buddy Giddy does that, and I think my buddy Tully does that.
01:22:54.020
From growing up, they travel around if there's a big hurricane or storm, and they do, I guess, loss.
01:22:59.980
But that might be insurance loss or something like that.
01:23:03.400
But you want to get in there and really do the-
01:23:11.540
They were down in Texas for that real bad freeze-up.
01:23:14.700
And so, like, there was apartment buildings that every water pipe burst.
01:23:18.700
And so, I mean, you're talking about an apartment building that's got 300, 400 units in it, and every single one's wet and molding.
01:23:26.760
Like, that's what I really want to do is I want to do, like, the real large loss stuff.
01:23:32.300
I mean, I guess, obviously, it's a higher-paying job.
01:23:34.700
Yeah, and I mean, it's just, like, the idea of, like, doing the larger jobs where it's, like, I've got one job for, like, the next month instead of, like, the traveling around all the time.
01:23:41.620
And the middle-of-the-night calls and stuff like that is, I'd really like that, I think.
01:23:47.000
And how, what do your folks think of your work?
01:24:10.120
I mean, he's got a really crazy life story, too, family and everything.
01:24:14.520
But, so, when I was in high school and I was really kind of fucking things up, he pulled me aside one day and he says, you know, there's only three ways you can be successful in this world.
01:24:23.140
You can do things better than anyone else can do it.
01:24:25.660
You can do something no one else can do or you can do things that no one else wants to do.
01:24:36.460
Dude, that's a really good square way to kind of communicate with your child.
01:24:45.200
These are sort of the options because it sounds very like, okay, that makes real clear sense.
01:24:54.960
He was an aircraft mechanic and my mother's a therapist.
01:25:06.860
So, my mom was working at her mother's business and their FedEx driver was my dad's friend.
01:25:13.700
And so, you know, he's meeting this pretty girl at the FedEx thing.
01:25:16.800
He's like, you've got to meet a friend of mine.
01:25:19.080
And so, literally, the FedEx driver set them up.
01:25:26.260
And look, FedEx, I've always thought, first of all, obviously, they're doing great things for people.
01:25:30.000
I don't think Amazon's really making love like that.
01:25:36.680
Because there's been times where I've mailed a package somewhere and then I tried to fly this commercial airline and I could, they're like, we have something that flies delayed or whatever.
01:25:44.740
But the package is, that thing goes out every time.
01:25:48.280
Yeah, if it doesn't get there in a day, they'll refund you.
01:25:50.200
Dude, if FedEx did an airline, I would be all over that, like a commercial airline.
01:25:56.780
Well, I bet your dad was really proud of how you became just so much of your own ingenuity, you know, and just taking control of your own destiny.
01:26:04.940
I mean, he definitely shared with me that, you know, because I moved out, you know, and I just dropped out of school.
01:26:13.460
Yeah, those are like warning signs to a parent.
01:26:15.480
Yeah, they were like, oh, we really weren't thinking that this was going to work out, you know.
01:26:22.280
Do you think there's any way to avoid trauma in the world?
01:26:25.700
Like I said, man, I just think that there's got to be better mental health something.
01:26:30.900
I don't pretend to know the solution, but it's just like more care for people that can't get care of themselves.
01:26:37.460
You ever roll up on anybody and they're in a costume or something like that?
01:26:39.940
They're dressed like, you know, they got a crown on or anything like that?
01:26:45.720
But like I said, I deal with some people that are maybe not firing on all cylinders.
01:26:57.680
Yeah, if somebody's nude, you kind of see what you're saying.
01:26:59.860
Yeah, if you're answering your door and you're naked, there's something not going on, right?
01:27:06.240
Dude, we had a guy, Buzz, he used to poop in this vase.
01:27:09.200
He had like a vase in his town or vase or vase in his house and he would tell us, go look in the vase, right?
01:27:19.140
And we'd always be like, there's not still going to be pooping there like a year or two later, dude.
01:27:23.160
And every time there was still, it was like, oh, come on, man.
01:27:26.420
But it's crazy how many times you'll go back to the well sometimes when somebody's tricking you, you know, shit tricking you.
01:27:33.680
Bobby Cotton, dude, thank you so much for coming in, man.
01:27:39.740
First of all, I just want to say thank you so much for just for getting things back to their original form, man.
01:27:47.960
For repairing things that need to be repaired in the world.
01:27:55.600
And we'll share Rob's socials if you guys want to hit him up.
01:30:05.040
Sorry, sir, but our ice cream machine is broken