The young lady was hovering around the 5 star hotel lobby, near the lifts and would hastily charge towards the middle lift every time it opened doors at the lobby.
Not that it should attract attention, except that she had been at it for over an hour and it was well past midnight.
The Lobby Manager finally decided to intervene.
Apparently her "very" expensive necklace had fallen through the door sill of the lift.
The engineering staff got into action and found the necklace in the lift pit.
Lift mechanics will quote stories of expensive items having been recovered from within the lift shaft and pit.
Yet these would be rare instances as most mechanics will vouch for.
Lift lobbies are in most cases the only commonly shared areas of a building where people would meet.
In fact in many of the urban residential towers, probably the lift lobby is the only meeting place for neighbors.
The lift lobby also happens to be the common garbage collection area for most buildings.
In fact house keeping staff invariably cleans inside out, starting from the area furthest from the lift and move towards the exit of the apartment or office and the lift lobby.
And once at the lift lobby, the quickest out of sight location to deposit the waste collection unfortunately happens to be the lift shaft.
If by any chance the lift is with perforated doors, the activity becomes even more efficient.
This becomes the rule when mopping is involved, with the waste water pushed aggressively towards the lift shaft.
Filth out of sight is a clean apartment or office and a clean building! The filth can include anything from yesterday's left over roti and pizza to dirty diapers.
Considering that filth also includes paan spittle, chewing gum, cigarette butts etc.
, it is obvious that the contribution is not from just the house keeping staff.
The biggest irritation for the service mechanic in maintaining the units is the filth that they find inside the shaft.
This is a sure shot recipe to ensure that the mechanic does not have his heart in his job.
Without his heart in the job, you can be sure that the extra effort required to keep your units in ship shape condition will be missing.
And if you are not interested in your property, why should somebody else be.
The garbage that finds it way into the shaft can on its own also cause serious technical problems.
The impact of water on steel and electrical components is beyond debate.
For instance water in the door sills can cause premature deterioration in the strength of the door holding components and panels.
Water in the pit on the other hand can cause serious electrical short circuiting.
With presence of combustible material, a simmering cigarette butt could be the flash point for a fire with disastrous consequences.
Conducting material like cigarette foils, aluminum wraps, metal toy pieces etc.
inside the shaft can result in electrical short circuiting or even shorting of safety circuits.
The solution lies in an increased awareness and sense of individual ownership for the lift even though it is a shared facility.
After all you would not find these things within your vehicle which probably costs a fraction of what a lift costs.