One day a local bank called my current employer to have us come down and check out why some of their circuits were not working.  On the lowest floor there were the main electrical panel and several other electrical panels.  Scattered about the building in various locations were more electrical panels.

I checked all of the panels I could find, and couldn’t find anything wrong.  I checked frequently with the people working there and no one knew of any other electrical panels.  So I went searching.  I went through all of the floors of the building to see if there were other panels that no one seemed to know about.

One door opened into a large utility room.  It contained air conditioners, furnaces and fans.  Aha!  There was also another door leading off somewhere.  When I opened the door I learned that it was a door to the outside with a flight of stairs leading to the street.

I also learned it was connected to a warning siren.

I immediately closed the door, hurried through the room into the main area of that floor to an elevator.

All the elevators had immediately gone to the top floor and locked there.  I took the stairway down to the bottom level, quickly, and resumed my search down there.  I pretended that I had been there all the time.  After awhile the sirens quit and the elevators started working.

I went back up to the third floor.  It seemed to be the area where the power was mostly out.  I asked each employee if they had seen any sort of electrical panel anywhere.  Person after person just gave me blank looks.

Finally in one office the guy behind the desk pointed at a wall and said there was something behind the picture, but he didn’t know what it was.  I moved the picture and there beneath it was a small 12 circuit electrical panel!

Sure enough, two breakers were tripped.  I reset them and everything worked.  I located the custodian and told him what I had found and where.  He was as surprised as the man at the desk in the room where I had found the panel.  I suggested that he make an “as built” diagram locating all the electrical equipment and controls.

I never heard a word about any complaints from the bank, or of any “as built” being made.

I know I got paid for my time.

Today the bank is gone and the building still stands.