It turned out to be a toy that had been missing for several years.
My boss advertised a truly special price on all air duct cleaning services and the phones started ringing like crazy. It was a fantastic time of the year to offer the ductwork cleaning services. It was close to Spring break and the time of the year when almost everyone gets ready for the warmer months. The special price was 40% off our typical fees. A lot of people decided to take advantage of the special service, and my coworker and I went to a residential home to scrub all of the ductwork system. We use a camera to survey all of the areas inside of the air duct. The camera allows us to view all of the problematic areas. The resident was thrilled to learn there was only a minimum amount of dust and pet dander inside of the ductwork system. I genuinely did find something absolutely strange and unusual as I was looking around the air duct. I told the resident that there was an odd-shaped item in the vent near the master living room. I easily offered to retrieve the item at no cost. It turned out to be a toy that had been missing for several years. The army soldier guy looked brand new. It was covered in a lot of dust, however otherwise in mint condition! It seemed that nobody had any clue how the toy ended up inside of the HVAC duct, even though I was thrilled to retrieve the hilarious memory. Most of the time when I have to retrieve something from the HVAC duct, it turns out to be rats, mice, or squirrels. This was a rare opportunity with no brutal results.