This past summer I worked as a Ride Operator for a local amusement park. There was never a dull day at work. I asked eight Ride Operators for their craziest, funniest, weirdest or just most awkward story. They did not disappoint.
1. The opossum.
"One day my coworker was working the bumper cars. He noticed that an opossum had walked into the bumper cars area and hid under one of the cars. Instead of running the ride he decided to call the Ride Operations dispatch and ask them for advice. They insisted he run the ride. So he loads the guests on the ride and presses the start button. The opossum got decapitated and the head was rolling around the bumper cars track. He had to shut the ride down and call his supervisor over to clean up the opossum's blood, guts, and freshly decapitated head." -Tyler*
2. The pine cone.
"One day I was checking heights for the ride I was stationed on. For this ride the guests have to either remove their hats or turn them backwards. This 14 or 15-year-old kid walks by me and I tell him about our hat policy. The kid removes his hat and a pine cone falls out of his hat and onto the ground. He and I just started at each other for a moment, looked at the pine cone and then the kid ran away. I have no clue why he was storing a pine cone in his hat." -Lisa*
3. The wrong belt.
"One day I was checking restraints on my ride which consisted of pulling the slack out of the seat belts. I get to this man's seat belt and I noticed that there was a lot of slack in the seat belt so I kept pulling. Turns out, I wasn't pulling on the seatbelt for the ride but rather just yanking on the guest's actual belt. It was the most awkward thing I have ever done." -Matthew*
4. The dead seagull.
"I was working the old fashioned cars at the amusement park I worked at and we got a guest report that there was a dead seagull out on the track. So, I called maintenance so they could go out on the track and take care of the gull. The maintenance worker goes out and picks the gull off the track and puts it in his car while we loaded the guests on to the ride. The worker pulls up to the area where all the guests are with a dead seagull resting at his feet." -Steven*
5. The zip tie failure.
"There is this one high thrill ride at the amusement park where I work where the guests lay in a harness and they get pulled over 180 feet up in the air. They then release a cord and fly down. I was putting guests into the ride one day and the zip tie that kept the seat belt attached fell apart in my hands. I called maintenance and they simply replaced the zip tie and kept the ride running. I will never ride that ride again." -Taylor*
6. The couple willing to die for some fun.
"There is an area around every ride known as the restricted area. The general rule is to stay out of the restricted area unless you want to get your head chopped off by a roller coaster. One day, we noticed a couple sneaking off into the restricted area to have sex so we had to press the emergency stop button on the ride in order to spare this couple death. We called security but the couple ran off before they were caught." -Tina*
7. The projectile vomiter.
"The unfortunate reality of being a Ride Operator is that if a guest pukes on your ride you have to clean it up. I worked a ride that I nicknamed "The Vomit Comet" due to how often people would throw up after riding. One day the ride was coming back into the parked position and I noticed one of the guests looking a little green. As it turns out, the guest had just consumed a large slushie before getting on the ride. He projectile vomited blue slushie all over the ride. It took me over and hour and three bags of sawdust to clean up all the vomit." -Alex*
8. The guy who pooped his pants."
"I was working bumper cars and the cycle ended. I noticed this teenage guy still sitting in his car after everyone had exited the ride. I walk over to him and I asked him if everything was okay. He looks up at me and goes "I think I shit my pants." I just started at him as he got out of the car and waddled out of the exit." -Derek*
