Bong! Falling Objects From Balconies/High Rises

IMBY · #1 Posted **Jul 31, 2018, 3:56 AM**

You never hear about it in the news ever, someone being injured by a falling object, during a windstorm, some object flying off someone's balcony, or some prankster doing it just for fun.

I had one incident I remember, 30 some years ago, walking down Madison Avenue, on a clear blue sky day, and it seemed like someone either emptied a pail of water out of a high rise, while walking on the sidewalk. Thank God the pail didn't hit me in the head!

I was on a thread recently, where some city in China is not allowing all-glass buildings being built level with the sidewalk, for fear of a glass panel getting lose and crashing to the sidewalk.

Know of any reported incidents of this happening, or to you? I'm sure if someone ended up getting killed by one of these incidents, it would surely make the news!

SIGSEGV · #2 Posted **Jul 31, 2018, 4:15 AM**

Ice falling off buildings can be very dangerous.

I wonder if anybody's been hit by a penny...

IMBY · #3 Posted **Jul 31, 2018, 4:33 AM**

I was living one time on the 38th floor of a high rise apartment building, and I was leaning over the balcony, fumbling with my keychain, and fell out of my hands onto the sidewalk! Yikes! So glad no one was down there when the keychain fell!

mhays · #4 Posted **Jul 31, 2018, 4:43 AM**

A keychain or penny shouldn't hurt much.

A bra once fell on the ground next to me on the edge of a typhoon.

dave8721 · #5 Posted **Jul 31, 2018, 1:02 PM**

I have seen videos of storms sending peoples balcony furniture airborne and down on to the street from 50 floors up here in Miami.

SpawnOfVulcan · #6 Posted **Jul 31, 2018, 2:20 PM**

Closest time I ever came to getting hit by something falling from a balcony was when I was sitting in the hot tub on the pool deck at our condo in Panama City Beach and some idiot on the 14th floor decided to drop their full cup of slushy. It smacked onto the deck and definitely would have injured someone if they'd been standing underneath it. Fortunately, I was a good 5 feet away from it.

hauntedheadnc · #7 Posted **Jul 31, 2018, 2:47 PM**

Tumblr is a wonderland of videos of guys expelling various intimate bodily fluids from balconies high and low.

Let's all try to picture that if we could...

mousquet · #8 Posted **Jul 31, 2018, 3:11 PM**

To my knowledge, lots of condos are provided with balconies or loggias here in Paris and all over France, cause climate is generally mild over the country and it's always nice to have some easy outdoor feel to your apartment.

But then, condominium buildings are harshly regulated by dwellers themselves, and by their own rules that you must strictly observe, so the community life remains always acceptable.
In most cases, you can't have any furniture that would exceed a certain height on your balcony, for safety reasons; and you must even be careful when you water your plants, so apartments below your own are not annoyed by any downpour.

It's like people living underneath your own unit shouldn't be aware of your presence, ever.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hauntedheadnc

Tumblr is a wonderland of videos of guys expelling various intimate bodily fluids from balconies high and low.

Let's all try to picture that if we could...

I would suggest you to ignore those and view different things, then.
Cause only in shockingly under-evolved locations, people would act like that.

hauntedheadnc · #9 Posted **Jul 31, 2018, 3:17 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by mousquet

I would suggest you to ignore those and view different things, then. Cause only in shockingly under-evolved locations, people would act like that.

Well, I'm glad we share the same opinion of Las Vegas then, because one of the videos I saw was a guy doing his thing at a hotel on the Strip. Most of the others are of guys doing their thing through the bars of various condo and apartment building railings. I pride myself on being able to recognize most skylines, but unfortunately most of those apartment/condo videos just don't show enough skyline or anything at all recognizable, so I couldn't tell you where all that action's going on.

Sun Belt · #10 Posted **Jul 31, 2018, 3:36 PM**

I was hit by a King Palm frond and they are surprisingly large and heavy. Luckily it brushed off my back and the heavy part missed my head. They don't look too big when they are at the top tree, but they're easily 10-12 feet long and probably about 15-20 lbs each.

These are becoming more and more popular with homeowners and other business locations because they don't require any trimming and drop their fronds randomly on their own, while maintaining a clean look.

tdawg · #11 Posted **Jul 31, 2018, 4:19 PM**

This is actually one of my phobias. I really don't trust other people to have secured their air conditioners in windows in some of the older buildings around Manhattan that still have window units so in the Summer I always try to walk close to the curb. Sorry if I sound nuts/paranoid.

jmecklenborg · #12 Posted **Jul 31, 2018, 5:18 PM**

It's almost funnier when stuff goes up. I had a Chinese landlord who lived on the top floor of the multifamily he owned in Boston. One day I look out the back window to see furniture being hoisted up onto his balcony with some sort of shady-looking homemade rig.

mousquet · #13 Posted **Jul 31, 2018, 5:28 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by hauntedheadnc

Well, I'm glad we share the same opinion of Las Vegas then, because one of the videos I saw was a guy doing his thing at a hotel on the Strip.

I went over there myself. I looked around and mostly saw regular people like myself.
Some people apparently addicted to gambling, though; also some women probably enslaved to prostitution, certainly by some pimps and gangsters hidden like cowards somewhere.
But I can assure you, I saw nothing like anyone pissing from their balcony.

Just writing it is hilarious.
I guess my stay was too short, while long enough in my opinion.
It's not such a funny town...

It wouldn't be so hard to enforce strict rules over the US, given their claimed puritanism.
However, I agree that once you've scratched the surface, lots of Americans are actually pretty dirty.
Sometimes even outrageously nasty.

hauntedheadnc · #14 Posted **Jul 31, 2018, 5:33 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by mousquet

But I can assure you, I saw nothing like anyone pissing from their balcony.

It wasn't pissing.

SpawnOfVulcan · #15 Posted **Jul 31, 2018, 5:43 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by hauntedheadnc

It wasn't pissing.

I was about to say... I don't think that's the same fluid he's referring to...

mousquet · #16 Posted **Jul 31, 2018, 5:55 PM**

Mental disease, guys... Seriously, wtf there?
I guess public health care and necessary related taxes ain't so bad.
Pay taxes on your incomes for your people's health, dammit.
This is some fair Christian behavior, isn't it?

hauntedheadnc · #17 Posted **Jul 31, 2018, 6:02 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by mousquet

Mental disease, guys... Seriously, wtf there?
I guess public health care and necessary related taxes ain't so bad.
Pay taxes on your incomes for your people's health, dammit.
This is some fair Christian behavior, isn't it?

If that bothers you, I can direct you to some tumblr feeds about what young men are getting up to on the Mexico City subway system that will curl your hair.

mousquet · #18 Posted **Jul 31, 2018, 6:09 PM**

^ Plz, no, thx. I once almost vomited on a subway platform here in Paris because of a sick homeless guy literally shitting it.
It was a struggle to not throw up.

I'll tell you what, just yesterday, I spent an hour watching reports on gang violence in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.

I do realize all the tremendous social work that must absolutely be done.
I know we're all responsible somehow, huh.
I don't need to vomit.

Xing · #19 Posted **Jul 31, 2018, 6:21 PM**

In New York:

Quote:

Glass panel falls, kills worker at skyscraper site
Associated Press

New York City has issued a stop work order at the construction site of one of Manhattan's tallest skyscrapers after a large glass panel fell, killing a security guard and injuring a construction worker.

The city's Department of Buildings said work was banned and a violation issued for failing to safeguard the site after the 10:30 a.m. emergency Saturday at the West 57th Street site, a half block from Carnegie Hall.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-bc...526-story.html

In Chicago:

• Video Link

I wouldn’t say it happens all the time, but it does happen.

SpawnOfVulcan · #20 Posted **Jul 31, 2018, 6:35 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by mousquet

Mental disease, guys... Seriously, wtf there?
I guess public health care and necessary related taxes ain't so bad.
Pay taxes on your incomes for your people's health, dammit.
This is some fair Christian behavior, isn't it?

I'd be willing to bet that if France had the same population as the U.S., the same amount of crazy would occur there, too. Either way, I'm sure there's no shortage of debauchery over there, anyway. Sorry for the mental imagery, crazy shit happens all the time. Sounds like you'd love to spend a night or two roaming the streets of the French Quarter in New Orleans....