So I was mowing my yard today, trying to get caught up with it for once this year, when the blades came to a sudden stop. So sudden there wasn't time for the belt to squeal. Just a thud and that was it.
I backed out of whatever I hit, saw a good sized stick pull out from under the deck and thought I had gotten off easy. No such luck.
Run the mower up on the berm and looked under it. Found a nasty ball of spring steel that used to be a leaf rake.
Take my advice and don't run over one of them with the blades rotating. It made a ball about six inches in diameter that really wasn't fun to remove.
On the plus side, there was no permanent damage to the mower. The leaf rake wasn't so lucky.
Be careful when mowing, especially in high grass.
Robert