What is the absolute weirdest place you have ever found a lost tool?

I once spent two days looking for a 1/4-inch impact driver that I swore had been stolen from the site. I was fuming, checking everyone's tool bags and looking under every scrap of OSB in the yard. Ended up finding it in the **vegetable crisper** of my fridge at home. Apparently, I’d come home so exhausted that I grabbed a head of lettuce for a sandwich and just swapped the tool for the greens without even registering the movement.

That kind of thing happens all the time when the fatigue sets in. I had a buddy who lost a whole pack of Sawzall blades and found them under his pillow a week later. He must have had them in his back pocket when he flopped into bed and they just worked thier way out. Another guy I worked with actually put his **multimeter** in the freezer becasue he thought it was a pack of frozen meat. He tried to tell us he was just trying to see if frozen electronics last longer, but we all knew he was just running on fumes. The most common one for me is the pencil behind the ear syndrome, but taken to the extreme. I’ve gone thru a gas station checkout and reached for my wallet only to realize I was still holding a pair of needle-nose pliers in my left hand like a total psycho. When you're working 10 or 12-hour shifts in the sun, your hands just become part of the tool. You stop feeling the weight of what you’re carrying til someone in the real world looks at you like you're crazy. Check the laundry basket again, too. I’ve pulled out a tape measure that’s gone through a full heavy-duty cycle and come out smelling like mountain air. If you’re at that point where you’re finding screwdrivers in the pantry, it’s usually a sign you need to actually take a full Sunday off. That brain mush is how people end up losing fingers because they stop respecting the equipment.

I'm just starting out and I'm alredy doing this. I spent twenty minutes looking for my hammer yesterday only to find I was literally holding it in my other hand while I looked. Does it get better once you get a better system, or is it just a 'construction brain' thing forever? I'm terrified of accidentally leaving a level in the trash or somthing. How do you guys keep track of your stuff when you're that tired?

To the kid asking if it gets better: No, you just start losing more expensive s*it. I once sheetrocked over a brand new oscillating tool because I set it down in a stud bay and just kept moving. Didn't realize it til I heard it rattling inside the wall two days later. You’ll eventually start trying to 'remote start' your front door with your truck keys or reach for a hammer that isn't there while you're in the checkout line. It’s not a system issue, it’s just what happens when your hands are busier than your head. Just try not to bury anything pricey behind the finish work.

I left my linesman pliers in a client’s medicine cabinet once. Had to call them back the next morning and explain why I was digging thru thier Tylenol. It’s the auto-pilot that kills you. You're thinking about the next three steps of the job and your hands just deposit whatever they're holding onto the nearest flat surface. I've started doing a 'dummy check' every time I leave a room now, but even then, I still managed to leave a level on top of a customer's fridge last year. They used it as a magnetic bottle opener for a month before finally calling to ask if I wanted it back.

My worst one was the 'phantom tool' on the roof. I spent an hour climbing up and down the ladder looking for my chalk line. I’d acutally tucked it into the gutter while I adjusted a shingle. It rained that night, and I didn't find it untill the gutter overflowed two weeks later because the tool was blocking the downspout. Now I keep a magnetic parts tray stuck to the side of my ladder, but even then, I still manage to leave my marking pencil in the silverware drawer at least once a month.