Nearly every former or current corporate employee has felt stuck in a work shift that would never seem to end.
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For one electrician, his six hours of unwanted overtime escalated into a life-or-death situation.
AJ Gow, an Illinois-based electrician, became trapped in a 130-foot billboard sign last month after his lift malfunctioned.
Stuck in an extremely hot crawl space in mid-air, Gow grew so concerned for his safety that he began recording goodbye messages to his family.
"In the moment, it was getting hairy I was genuinely getting scared. I didn't know what was going to happen. And yeah, I was freaking out," he recalled to ABC 7 Chicago.
"God forbid if something were to actually happen - it was my final words. So essentially a goodbye without saying goodbye," Gow said of the messages he recorded for his family.
Electrician Gets Stranded in 130-Foot Structure
Gow remained stranded in the towering sign for six hours.
"It was a hot day. There was really no air, so I sent my co-worker down. I said, 'Go get me some water and my battery-powered fan,'" Gow told the outlet.
"He went down, and on his way back up the lift had an issue and could not make it back," Gow said.
Without water to quench his thirst, the electrician said he really started to feel the effects roughly four hours in. Meanwhile, initial efforts to fix the lift were unsuccessful.
"Eventually I started to feel like crap. And I told [my co-worker], you know, call EMS. I said, I don't care what you have to do, get me down," Gow said.
Firefighters attempted to rescue the stranded worker, but could not reach him, as their ladders were only 100 feet tall.
Authorities had to borrow a lift from a nearby job site to retrieve the man.
By this time, helicopters were already filming the incident, which gained national attention after Gow's successful rescue.
"I was not prepared for it to get as much traction as it did," Gow said. "I had no idea that I was going to be stuck up here for that long, or was going to be anywhere near that kind of scenario."
Gow has since returned to work and vows to prioritize his safety moving forward.
