# Trapped in a bathroom: did she over-react? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 12, 2013, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-bathroom-did-she-over-react/676191 "2013-12-12T19:51:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-bathroom-did-she-over-react/676191/1 "2013-12-12T19:51:48Z")
A [story](http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/12/woman-claws-her-way-out-of-locked-bathroom-as-in-shawshank-redemption/) about a woman who was working late at the office and went into the bathroom. Somehow she got locked inside. Okay, not a good thing. But the report is acting like she was trapped in a sinking boat or a burning building and her escape was a heroic effort to save her life. The reality is the worst case scenario is she spent the night locked in a bathroom and somebody would have let her out the next morning. The only danger she faced was hunger and embarrassment. Quite frankly, if I were her employer, I’d be pissed at the way she panicked and dug a hole in the wall. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-bathroom-did-she-over-react/676191/2 "2013-12-12T19:59:17Z")
Well, in all fairness she did stay in there overnight before tunneling out. But since she got locked in on a Friday night, nobody was coming for two more days. Unless her husband finally got around to looking for her. That’s the part I don’t get. Your spouse calls you to say she’s leaving work soon. And then she doesn’t come home. She doesn’t call, and she doesn’t answer the phone when you try to call her. I’d be worried and looking for **DoctorJ** well before 8 hours, ya know? ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-bathroom-did-she-over-react/676191/3 "2013-12-12T20:00:47Z")
I think so. My biggest fear of being trapped somewhere would be 1)lack of water, 2)no bathroom and 3)temperature. Heck give me a TV or internet access and I’d be fine in there for days (assuming it was clean and didn’t smell). ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-bathroom-did-she-over-react/676191/4 "2013-12-12T20:02:05Z")
Yeah, it’s the Friday night thing that’s a little scary. The one good thing about being trapped in a bathroom is that you have plenty of access to water. You know that you can survive until Monday morning if necessary. But would you really want to? I think it’s reasonable to tunnel out rather than waiting to see what happens over the weekend. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-bathroom-did-she-over-react/676191/5 "2013-12-12T20:02:49Z")
There is no reason a bathroom door in an office should be able to only be locked and unlocked from the outside only. What if the building caught on fire? What if coworkers were up to playing pranks on people. What if she was diabetic and needed to take insulin? If I were her I would give that employer both barrels if they suggested I should have waited there all night. ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-bathroom-did-she-over-react/676191/6 "2013-12-12T20:03:18Z")
NM ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-bathroom-did-she-over-react/676191/7 "2013-12-12T20:06:58Z")
Seems like a over reaction to me. She had just called her husband and he was expecting her home within the hour. He certainly would have come looking for her. Seen her car in the employee parking lot and then the building would be searched. She wasn’t facing a entire weekend in that bathroom. I’ve never seen bathroom door locked at my job. They have deadbolt locks on them that could be locked with a key. But I’ve never found them locked even on weekends. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-bathroom-did-she-over-react/676191/8 "2013-12-12T20:08:18Z")
Two hours to poke through some drywall and insulation? That’s the crazy part. I’d put my boot through the wall in about 30 seconds. Anyway, the wall can be repaired for like a hundred bucks. No big whoop. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-bathroom-did-she-over-react/676191/9 "2013-12-12T20:12:01Z")
> [@CrazyCatLady](#): > > Well, in all fairness she did stay in there overnight before tunneling out. But since she got locked in on a Friday night, nobody was coming for two more days. Unless her husband finally got around to looking for her. > > That’s the part I don’t get. Your spouse calls you to say she’s leaving work soon. And then she doesn’t come home. She doesn’t call, and she doesn’t answer the phone when you try to call her. I’d be worried and looking for **DoctorJ** well before 8 hours, ya know? Hell, yeah. By the time my wife was an hour late, I’d have called her office phone and her cell phone, and would have sent her a text and an email to let her know I was wondering where she was. By 2 hours, I’d have called building security. Once they looked for her in and near her office and found no sign of her, and found (or didn’t find) her car in the parking garage and found no sign of her, I’d be calling the cops next. And after leaving a note on the front door saying “CALL MY CELL THE MOMENT YOU GET IN”, I’d be headed for her office, to see if building security would let me in so I could see if I could find any sign of what might’ve happened to her. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-bathroom-did-she-over-react/676191/10 "2013-12-12T20:16:07Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > There is no reason a bathroom door in an office should be able to only be locked and unlocked from the outside only. What if the building caught on fire? What if coworkers were up to playing pranks on people. What if she was diabetic and needed to take insulin? If I were her I would give that employer both barrels if they suggested I should have waited there all night. Yeah, that’s the WTF part of the story for me. Why would a bathroom even be lockable so that you couldn’t get out? ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-bathroom-did-she-over-react/676191/11 "2013-12-12T20:18:16Z")
> [@CrazyCatLady](#): > > Well, in all fairness she did stay in there overnight before tunneling out. But since she got locked in on a Friday night, nobody was coming for two more days. Unless her husband finally got around to looking for her. > > That’s the part I don’t get. Your spouse calls you to say she’s leaving work soon. And then she doesn’t come home. She doesn’t call, and she doesn’t answer the phone when you try to call her. I’d be worried and looking for **DoctorJ** well before 8 hours, ya know? From the link: “Perrin immediately called her husband and daughter, India, **who at that point were getting ready to go out searching for her**.” ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-bathroom-did-she-over-react/676191/12 "2013-12-12T20:18:45Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Seems like a over reaction to me. She had just called her husband and he was expecting her home within the hour. He certainly would have come looking for her. Seen her car in the employee parking lot and then the building would be searched. > > She wasn’t facing a entire weekend in that bathroom. Her husband apparently hadn’t shown up in the next 8 hours, nor had building security. Before she started digging her way through the wall, she waited a bit, then tried jiggling the door, banging the door, etc. Then she took the time to stuff 200 paper towels under the bathroom door in hopes that a security camera might pick it up. And then she tried to hoist herself through an escape door in the ceiling, but couldn’t manage that. I think by then she had every reason to believe her escape was up to her. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-bathroom-did-she-over-react/676191/13 "2013-12-12T20:19:57Z")
> [@CrazyCatLady](#): > > That’s the part I don’t get. Your spouse calls you to say she’s leaving work soon. And then she doesn’t come home. She doesn’t call, and she doesn’t answer the phone when you try to call her. I’d be worried and looking for **DoctorJ** well before 8 hours, ya know? That is weird. It would be one thing if your spouse was leaving work around four and wasn’t home a few hours later. You might convince yourself she stopped to do some shopping or something on the way home. But if your spouse calls to tell you she’s leaving work at ten pm and she’s still not home eight hours later? That’s serious cause for worry. In retrospect, Lonnie Perrin appears to have under-reacted at least as much as Karen Perrin over-reacted. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-bathroom-did-she-over-react/676191/14 "2013-12-12T20:22:27Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > From the link: > > “Perrin immediately called her husband and daughter, India, **who at that point were getting ready to go out searching for her**.” From the link, she called them **when she got out, which was 8 hours after she called and said she’d be home soon.** ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-bathroom-did-she-over-react/676191/15 "2013-12-12T20:23:09Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > That is weird. It would be one thing if your spouse was leaving work around four and wasn’t home a few hours later. You might convince yourself she stopped to do some shopping or something on the way home. But if your spouse calls to tell you she’s leaving work at ten pm and she’s still not home eight hours later? That’s serious cause for worry. > > In retrospect, Lonnie Perrin appears to have under-reacted at least as much as Karen Perrin over-reacted. [Post 11](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=16924808&postcount=11) ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-bathroom-did-she-over-react/676191/16 "2013-12-12T20:23:18Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > …In retrospect, Lonnie Perrin appears to have under-reacted at least as much as Karen Perrin over-reacted. True. There’s definitely more to the story than what we’ve heard. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-bathroom-did-she-over-react/676191/17 "2013-12-12T20:24:31Z")
> [@CrazyCatLady](#): > > From the link, she called them **when she got out, which was 8 hours after she called and said she’d be home soon.** FROM THE LINK, the husband was about to go out searching for her. I would’ve gone sooner, myself ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-bathroom-did-she-over-react/676191/18 "2013-12-12T20:24:32Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > From the link: > > “Perrin immediately called her husband and daughter, India, **who at that point were getting ready to go out searching for her**.” Yeah, but that was **8 hours** after she said she was leaving. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-bathroom-did-she-over-react/676191/19 "2013-12-12T20:25:11Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > From the link: > > “Perrin immediately called her husband and daughter, India, **who at that point were getting ready to go out searching for her**.” Yeah,\* the next morning.\* If my wife went missing one evening, and I waited until the next morning to get mobilized to find her, I’d be lucky if the worst thing she did was to divorce me. Not that I would blame her if she chose to claw my eyes out first. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-bathroom-did-she-over-react/676191/20 "2013-12-12T20:26:59Z")
My only point is: In the story, he was going to do just that. Did he wait too long? In my opinion, yes. But it’s right there in the linked story [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-bathroom-did-she-over-react/676191.md?page=2)