I got better.

Well, I was carrying the head of an e&m pin and I slipped and fell down 24 stairs with the head of the pin bouncing down about 1/2 second ahead of me. I broke my hip, was in the hospital for 20 days and on crutches for 4 months. The one time I added up the medical bills, it was a touch over $350,000. A few more bills (not big ones) came in after that.

But I haven't died from moving a pin (yet).

Looking forward to someone who replies saying they died.

Joe

24 stairs?! Was that pin in the top of a lighthouse?

Thanks! I needed that.

Me too

Sad part about moving into my 50s is that I find I get a lot more bruises moving games. All very worth it

I have been jealous of your Escalera since the day you brought STTNG into my basement. Since then, everything else has been on cardboard sliding down the stairs. Many bruises bringing my MMrSE downstairs last month. But well worth it.

Gave myself terrible turf toe like injury. Was squeezing a lazerball on a dolly through a door and the wheels where stuck at the door's threshold. Gave it a nice pull it and came through faster than expected and the bottom bar of the dolly bent my shoe covered big toe back way to far. Knew immediately it was bad but kept moving the pin and took it down a flight of stairs. Swelled up and turned black and blue. Couldn't walk the next day and took weeks to heal and about 6 months to feel normal.

Not me. But many years ago this happened.

There was a man in these parts that in addition to being a fighter pilot in WW2, made a fortune moving stuff. When I first met him he was mainly moving games for distributors. His name was Ray Benson. If there was an easy way to do something, or a hard way. He knew the hard way. Strong as an ox. Those double wide ball bowlers, he and his helper picked them up and carried them, Ray on the heavy end.

Anyway a lady wanted to surprise her husband with a pool table for Christmas. Ray delivered it Christmas morning. Husband was super excited. It was going down a flight of stairs. Good old Ray put the husband on the heavy end and down they went. Likety split, gaining speed. Hit the flat floor, ran across it, and Ray drove the pool table and man through a wall.

Merry Christmas !

LTG : )

For me, just my pride having a bad game.

By far the best comment. Wish some of these stories also updated us in the condition of the pin! I assume that head was merely a pile of wood and wires at the bottom of the lighthouse.

I was tiptoeing across the side rails of some games in the garage in my sandals so I could move a small portable TV that was on the shelf above them.

As I pulled the TV, the cord got caught and it started a chain reaction of my right foot slipping off the rail to between two machines and then me falling backwards and landing on the hard concrete below on my ass. I was sure I would break my leg or do worse on the way down, but just ended up with bruised pride.

But was the TV okay???

It was my post that suggested death as a possibility. I'm glad we haven't heard about it in this thread.

My main location has a long stairway down to the front door. I haven't counted, but it's longer than a normal stairway, probably 18-20 steps. The walls are brick, the stairs are concrete, and the door at the bottom is glass.

Sometimes I move games during business hours, but try to keep it to slow times. I'll set up a garbage can barricade at the door to prevent anyone from coming into the stairwell while I'm moving. On occasion, someone will come into the stairwell from the street behind me (or make it past my barricade at the bottom), and either try to pass me as I'm moving, or offer to help. (Which I always refuse).

I definitely have visions of something going wrong right at one of those moments and the machine falling down the stairs onto someone below who isn't supposed to be there. Nothing even remotely bad has happened before, but I can envision a pretty ugly worst-case scenario.

Pro-tip: if you see a stranger in the middle of moving a machine up the stairs: stay away! They probably know what they're doing and you're putting yourself in danger (and distracting them) by offering to help.

The only time I've ever hurt myself was the final 20 feet of moving IMDN into place. It was on an appliance dolly (because I didn't need my Escalera because I was only going down stairs, not up), but forgot that there is one single step to go up. I thought heaving it up one step should be fine, but I pulled something in my back that bugged me for weeks. I'll never do that again.

It was like one of those old Quasar 13 inch CRTs, and it came crashing down like I did and put a dent in one of my woodrails. Don't know if it worked as I just put it out on the curb.

I still tiptoe across the games if I need to, but that event makes me a lot more careful now.

Would love to see a video of this.

Worst coin op moving experience was a pole position. I have a storage shed out back that I keep stuff in. I have been promising myself I'd pave the area around it. Gets treacherous, especially when carting stuff around. The super short version is that I was loading the pole position into the shed late at night. I'm not sure what happened other than waking up underneath a pole position. After grabbing some pain killers I pushed it into the shed laying on it's back and had a buddy come over to help me tip it up later. Of course I got the wrong buddy for this. He was holding the base steady while I did the old heave ho on the top. He jumped back when I was halfway there. The machine rolled out and dragged me down on top of it. Face first into the marquee. I was told I was out for five minutes before I got back up bleeding from the mouth. The pole position went on craigslist that day.

I wish I had the camera rolling at the time, but tried to describe it as it happened. These are EMs so the rails are relatively level.

When my leg dropped between the machines, I'm sure what saved me from more damage, is that one of the machines moved sideways or my leg would be broken. I've never broken a bone and I still bounce like rubber. Wasn't feeling the bounce when I hit the concrete this time though.

Oh, I just wanted a video of a standard, successful tiptoe across the games.

Here is the scene of the crime almost as it was at the time. You can see the little Quasar up in the lefthand corner. It was in the middle and I moved it to put up the flatscreen which I have since wall mounted in the other corner.

It was between Serenade and Arrow Head that my leg fell thru. This whole lineup has changed since then.

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Not moving a game. But Pinball Expo related. Me and four others went to a fancy steak restaurant. You had to go down some stairs, a landing, then more stairs.

I don't know what happened. I had about a stair and a half to go and my right knee gave out and I leaped forward missing the last stair and landed on my knees. My friend tried to catch me while I yelled out his name. I stopped short of the wall. I bounced right up. Seemed okay.

My friend asked why I called his name. I said "you kicked me". Which I accuse him of to this day.

The next morning the restaurant called my friend. He paid for everything so they must have tracked down his credit card. They wanted to know if the person in his party that fell, if he was okay. He said no one fell. Which was probably a good thing. I didn't know it or feel it. But apparently my head dented their wall.

LTG : )
Disclaimer. My friend won't let me pay when we go out. No matter how hard I try. So at this fancy steak restaurant I only had a glass of water, and a steak. Which he insisted. When they came to take the drink order I did ask if they had Louis the 13th. He said they did, under lock and key. I told him no. I thought I could blow my friend some crap. Didn't faze him. He said when we go out I should get what I want. He didn't mind. Darn. I missed an opportunity there.

I have a championship ping pong table that my wife and I decided to move to the upstairs game room. These are the larger, thicker style of ping pong tables. While it is quite bulky, I'm a pretty strong guy, so I didn't (don't) really think it's very heavy.

I made the mistake of just wearing socks, and my stairs are carpeted and go straight up with no turn or "break, " then they have a small space at the bottom where there is a door to the garage.

About 3/4ths of the way up, my foot slipped and the table moved a bit and hit me square in the chest. I caught it...luckily...but I saw my life flash before my eyes. If I was off-balance or slipped further, I would have fallen all the way down and likely died.

After that, I decided there was no way I'm moving pins upstairs. Though, I could fit a ton up there, so the thought crosses my mind from time to time.

Ballsy AF. You walk across those museum pieces?! That’s like Steve at Rock Fantasy. That crazy man jumped up and down on his games. I practically turned white!!!
My games are beaters and I’d never walk across them!
Some of yous are fearless!

Almost!!! I was almost swallowed by a black hole once taking it upstairs to my gameroom...Shit! That pin was heavy man!!

This actually happened to me. I was taking the game down 5 stairs on a dolly. It ran away from me , i held it. I was pulled up over the top and the game landed on me. It must have been in slow motion as i was unhurt. I think i was pinned between the wall and the game and it slowed me down.

My girlfriend and I were moving in together. She was helping me move a heavy em cabinet out of a box truck on a crappy HF dolly I’d just purchased for the move. The handle of the dolly is slightly shorter than the length of the cabinet, which wasn’t an issue moving the game from its upright position...

Unfortunately, I’d left it strapped to the dolly laying flat, and it’d slid back enough for me to get my fingers in there. I forgot, and picked up the dolly and started moving the game when it suddenly fell into its fully settled position, crushing and clamping my fingers between the handle and the lip of the cab. There was nothing I could do, as angling up caused it to slide down more, and angling back caused it to clamp more. I quickly went from calmly asking, to frantically screaming for my girlfriend to push the game back, but she couldn’t understand what was happening.

I finally used my legs to create a little space and ripped my hand out. My girlfriend was sobbing, completely freaked out by my progressively frantic attempts to free my fingers. My hand was pretty f’d, and my girlfriend was not ok for a while. But I’m cheep, and have since managed to move many games with that same dolly, without incident.

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Like a ballerina.

I'm waiting for LTG to relive his Judge Dredd experience again.

I have that exact same dolly for moving pins, and I too have pinched my fingers with it. Never too badly though.

I'd bet we're not the only ones. I think what made it so bad was the cab was strapped tightly to the dolly, so once it fell into place, there was nowhere else for it to go. One of many lessons I've learning the hard way.

I have it on good authority this guy did.

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Got my head (slightly) crushed between a Metallica and a ceiling once. My buddy and I were moving it out of his basement with a very low clearance stairs "ceiling". I was on top pulling the dolly. He was under, pushing. I didn't realize how close my melon was to the ceiling. So as I'm yanking and he's shoving, there's my head. Couldn't really open my mouth to yell, so kind of grunted for him to go back down, LOL. Hurt a bit, left a bruise under my chin from the game and a small dent on the top of my head from the ceiling, but it was funny as hell!

No death but injured pride.

The steps were steep. Made it to the bottom step, but couldn't pull back enough to roll it down. I took the wheels right to the edge.

The center of gravity got away from me. I didn't fall too far, but I did go down.
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More importantly, did it damage the pin?

Same for me, going down I just use my appliance dolly, but key here is that my wife holds on to my belt from behind me as a counterweight! Reading all these stories I''m worried next time we'll both go tumbling together. But I suspect she'll just let go! And for the best so one of us can call for help:

911: "What's your emergency?"
Wife: "My husband was moving a pinball machine --"
911: "Say no more, we'll be right there!"

That's better than :

911: "What's your emergency ?"
Wife : "My husband was moving a pinball machine down some stairs and fell and the game is on top of him. I think he's dead".
911: "Well first. Check and be sure if he's dead".
Wife : "BANG" "Yup, he's dead. Now what ?"

LTG : )

Luckily, I strapped it and padded it with heavy blankets. No broken glass - game was fine. I dodged a bullet.

does this count? my friend john edwards was travelling back from sydney after picking up a real nice gottlieb diamond jack and atlantis.

was on the hume highway travelling at 100km per hour and swerved to miss a kangaroo that was on the road.

he lived but had some serious breaks that required surgery.

check out what happened to his car and games after they were picked up.

the crazy thing was both backglasses didn't break.

john when he got better put those games back together.
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sorry double post

Two collectors in NJ a couple years ago were hand carting a heavy pin to the second floor, the older person was on top holding the hand cart, the my friend the younger one at the bottom pushing. The older person started getting chest pains and the hand cart slipped out of his hands. The machine fell down the stairs, my friend the younger person was able to move to the side of the machine but his hand got caught taking off the tip of his thumb. They called 911 and waited on the curb for the ambulance. Will waiting the older gentleman had a heart attack and passed away right there. Most NJ collectors know this story, I knew of the older person but did not know him well. Very sad.

Broke my tibia moving an alien with that wheeled cart for sale on eBay . Be careful with that thing one wrong push and the whole pinball leans and crashes

The one year I worked. Summer of 1973. A man from Israel and I were delivering a jukebox to the YMCA in downtown Minneapolis. On the LaSalle street side.

Two glass doors, both of them opened from the middle and out. Big flight of stairs inside. So we have the jukebox on a big two wheeler. Heavy load. Going up one stair at a time. Him on top, me on the bottom.

3/4ths of the way up two cute females walk by and start talking to him. He stops, turns, starts talking to them. And lets go !

I was watching this unfold. So I quick stepped sideways out of the way and let it go. Bouncing down the stairs, crashed through the doors. Didn't break them. Across the sidewalk and across the street in traffic.

He yelled at me. "Why didn't I stop it?". I'm like F you. We went and retrieved the jukebox. None the worse for wear. Hauled it back inside and upstairs and left. The company sent a guy out to set it up and fill with records. We never heard anything about it. Apparently it still worked.
LTG : )

i carried a Space Station up a group of stairs, and had to lift it above my chest to make a turnaround.

I thought I was going to have a heart attack - it was before I got in shape. Thought I was dying.

I almost sh*t my pants moving a STTNG. Does that count?

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinball-injuries-3
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pin-injuries
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/injuries-sustained-while-working-on-or-playing-pinball-machines
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/major-injuries-due-to-a-pinball-related-occurrence
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinball-injuries-2
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinball-injuries
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/pinball-maint-transport-related-battle-scarsinjuriesaccidentswar-stories
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/when-pinball-machines-attack-pinball-related-injuries

No major injuries to speak of yet, but one time a CRT arcade in a showcase cabinet crushed my flat dolly. F*** big arcade games. At least pins are worth the risk.

Some amazing stories here. Thanks for sharing.

I've moved a few hundred many by myself. Never had a major injury lots of minor ones. Worst was after I moved to my new house a couple years ago I tweaked my lower back moving demoman. After that bought a powermate stairclimber and dont know how I lived without it before.

Purchased a TOTAN from a friend, didn’t realize the leg bolts were slightly shorter than normal. Added plastic leg protectors and now there’s even less thread to grip inside the cab. Got under the pin to level the back legs and then began to scoot the pin back against the wall. During the push back part, both back leg bolts gave out suddenly, and the entire back of the pin fell on my back, pinning me to the floor. Knocked the wind out of me (and scared the shit out of me of course). My wife was home but watching TV on the other side of the house, so she couldn’t hear me calling out. Fortunately my arms were mostly tucked underneath my chest on the floor, so after 5 minutes give or take of thinking about what to do, I wiggled my arms into position underneath me and did a kind “dead weight” lift and pushed the pin up enough to wiggle out from underneath and escape. With the exception of a very sore and bruised back, escaped without further injury. And equally as important, TOTAN was unharmed. So glad it wasn’t my TZ!

Heck ya that counts. Same for me taking a Ms PacMan down to my Gameroom.

Not that amazing.

I'm waiting for the dead guys to come back and post what happened to them.

LTG : )