Kinda OT: Can somebody tell me what this is?

A

asyncd

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Jul 10, 2004
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A friend of mine recently got back from Seattle, WA. He took this picture on 08/20/07 shortly before 9am. The CAT5 cables you see are running into a hole in the ground. Unfortunatley, he didn't have the nerve to look inside the trash can. His location was somewhere around Pier 55 on Alaskan Way.

He states the cables were running directly into the ground and not under that metal thing you see on the bottom left of the screen. The only thing I can think of is maybe some bums in the sewers were connecting to some wireless AP router...heh.

So, what do you think?

cat5seattle.jpg
 
I would have looked in the trash bin thing. This is by no means some sort of professional setup and does not seem to be temporary. It COULD be perhaps a temporary project that was hidden in the trash bin thing so people won't steal it, but I doubt it as nothing protects the wire and a realistic person would have at least piped it.... the hole in the bin looks quite unorthodox.

Something tells me something very unethical is going on there. :p Damnit, tell your friend to go back, I want to know.
 
ROFL, it's not a trash can, it's called a Jobox "gangbox", used to store working mens tools on jobsites, someone was obviously pulling cable underground OR they had some sort of troubleshooting device hooked up temporarily, you see it was raining, they didn't want it to get wet
 
Perhaps the phone company had some dead equipment underground and stuck that box up there temporarily.
 
Does he have anymore shots of it?

If we could get the name/writing on the front of the 'box' I think that would clear if it is a trashcan or 'gangbox'.

I don't think 'some bums wanted internet' type of thing. they would steal a laptop if that was so :p

The cable is ran decently, must have been custome terminated (Maybe now, just assuming).
 
valve1138 said:
Perhaps the phone company had some dead equipment underground and stuck that box up there temporarily.
Click to expand...

That's my hunch....a quick bandaid by the telco for something.

Dunno if there's any electrical feeding whatever might be in the box...unless extension cord or something is coming in on the other side....but doubt there's any in such a public place.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
That's my hunch....a quick bandaid by the telco for something.

Dunno if there's any electrical feeding whatever might be in the box...unless extension cord or something is coming in on the other side....but doubt there's any in such a public place.
Click to expand...

Ah good call, no electrical that we can see. Truly a mystery. Time for someone to go back and take more pics.
 
Yes, I do apolgize all. I should have taken more shots from more angles and I regret not doing it, or looking in the box for that matter.
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As in the post above, the box was labed JOBOX.

Hopefully someone on the hardforums here from the seattle area will return there to shed light on the mystery. I would do it myself, but I am now a fair distance from Seattle and the state of Washington.

One of those oddities you don't run across everyday.

For now we can have fun with speculation. But i am keeping my fingers crossed a local can go back to said location and shed further light on this.

However, i do have a larger version of the pic at a resolution of 3648x2736 (10MP does take a nice picture)

For now i go with the crazy hippies techy bums hijackin internet, hehe

will try and get the larger picture posted later, at work now.......
 
It appears that on the left hand side, just before the cables go underground, there might be a black cable. Maybe this is a extension cord?
 
There may be a outlet box behind the trash can thing or there may be a light fixture behind it that they tapped from.
 
its a typical job site thing, the gangbox was being used in a non-traditional way, but i dont see the fascination here, you guys dont get out much huh?:D
 
Maybe they went with the lowest bidding subcontractor. Dang municipal projects :p
 
nobody_here said:
its a typical job site thing, the gangbox was being used in a non-traditional way, but i dont see the fascination here, you guys dont get out much huh?:D
Click to expand...

A box with CAT6 coming out the side, in the middle of the city, with NO ONE around, no (from what it appears) lock, and you don't see the interest?

What city do you live in where you see this frequently?

If it were in an alley or not in plain site I might understand it better, but it just looks odd.
 
moetop said:
A box with CAT6 coming out the side, in the middle of the city, with NO ONE around, no (from what it appears) lock, and you don't see the interest?

What city do you live in where you see this frequently?

If it were in an alley or not in plain site I might understand it better, but it just looks odd.
Click to expand...

i've worked many construction jobs all over in my younger days (which is why i immediately knew it was a Jobox brand gangbox although we typically had Greenlee brand gangboxes) and i travel all the time in my current job for the last several years so...., you name it, Boston, New York, LA, Atlanta, Dallas, Miami, Orlando, Chicago, Louisville, etc......i've seen much much stranger things, many many things i wish i had a camera for at that moment, this just seems like a very docile thing, admittedly it would seem like they would have locked the box or had someone there with it, but for all we know there was nothing but a roll of CAT5 cable in the box.....;)
 
nobody_here said:
i've worked many construction jobs all over in my younger days (which is why i immediately knew it was a Jobox brand gangbox although we typically had Greenlee brand gangboxes) and i travel all the time in my current job for the last several years so...., you name it, Boston, New York, LA, Atlanta, Dallas, Miami, Orlando, Chicago, Louisville, etc......i've seen much much stranger things, many many things i wish i had a camera for at that moment, this just seems like a very docile thing, admittedly it would seem like they would have locked the box or had someone there with it, but for all we know there was nothing but a roll of CAT5 cable in the box.....;)
Click to expand...

If it was one of your Greenlee boxes, I think people would understand it better.


But tell me, you see a beat up box, with graffiti all over it, bent with dents, a coarse hole in it, and shiny cat5's coming out of it, going straight into the ground to somewhere... all alone, not near any construction equip, no tape, no pylons, no conduit, no nothing... just tucked behind the wall waiting for somone to take a picture of it.

You tell me where you've seen that ;)


Oh and not only construction folks own those boxes ;)
 
Isn't Oscar the Grouch allowed the internet like everyone else?
 
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