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I assume most people reading this are familiar with the plot of Good Will Hunting, which revolves around a misunderstood genius who is working as a janitor at MIT before being thrust into the world of academia after solving a complex math problem on a chalkboard in a hallway.
While Matt Damon’s eponymous character is initially scolded by the professor who assumed he was defacing the proof in question, it ultimately serves as his ticket out of jail and into the fairly unknown territory he has a bit of trouble navigating over the course of the film.
Now, a similarly prestigious university is dealing with the fallout of an incident involving a janitor who supposedly opted to take matters into their own hands—but their actions have caused a stir for all of the wrong reasons.
According to The Times Union, the chemical biology department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in upstate New York found itself with a major headache on its hands courtesy of the unnamed janitor who allegedly turned off a freezer in a lab that was home to cells being used for photosynthesis research linked to the development of solar panels.
In a lawsuit, the school asserts the freezer was scheduled to be repaired after getting stuck at -108°F, which was warmer than the preferred -112°F that was being used to preserve samples dating back 25 years.
The freezer was emitting a regular alarm, and while the researchers in the lab posted a note that gave cleaning staff instructions to turn it off while warning them not to meddle with the power, the janitor apparently decided to turn off a breaker, which RPI claims caused “catastrophic damage” that ruined the bulk of the contents (the outlet reports “the cleaner thought he was turning on the electrical breakers when he had actually turned them off”).
The university is reportedly seeking a minimum of $1 million in damages from the cleaning company, which is the estimated cost to recreate the research that was lost.