Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute filed a million-dollar lawsuit against a cleaning company after a custodian, seeking to stop an "annoying" beep, allegedly turned off a lab freezer and killed decades of "groundbreaking" research. The school in Troy, New York, had contracted with Daigle Cleaning Systems Inc. to clean the Cogswell Building lab between Aug. 17, 2000, and Nov. 27, 2020, according to a
![Major research lost after custodian flips switch on lab freezer, lawsuit claims Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute alleges it lost decades of scientific work because worker sought to stop "annoying alarms" coming from lab that contained super-cold freezer.](https://cdn-ak-scissors.b.st-hatena.com/image/square/2bbc2a7fdb58dacf40d2c604bc764e6e6d8f4ffa/height=288;version=1;width=512/https%3A%2F%2Fmedia-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com%2Fimage%2Fupload%2Ft_nbcnews-fp-1200-630%2Cf_auto%2Cq_auto%3Abest%2Frockcms%2F2023-06%2F230626-Rensselaer-Polytechnic-Institute-se-1147a-958ae6.jpg)