# When you are stuck in a room that won't move **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 25, 2026, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-are-stuck-in-a-room-that-wont-move/1031173 "2026-06-25T03:48:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-are-stuck-in-a-room-that-wont-move/1031173/21 "2026-06-25T15:48:09Z")
And when your body is half in, half out, then the elevator suddenly moves again. Faster than you think is possible. At least in the movies I watched. Sometimes it is not half the body but just your head. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-are-stuck-in-a-room-that-wont-move/1031173/22 "2026-06-25T15:59:08Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I think that, after 15 minutes or so of busy signal on the emergency button, I’d have tried to pry the doors open and hope that there was a floor close enough I could get out to. I think I tried that, and I think it didn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-are-stuck-in-a-room-that-wont-move/1031173/23 "2026-06-25T16:23:15Z")
My house builder had the door knob backwards on my laundry room, I swear he was out to get me. Yep you guessed it I locked myself in there a few times. No window. It got touchy a couple times. (Needed insulin or had something on the stove). This was before we had reliable cel signal. Never had my phone anyway. I just had to wait til someone came home. That got scary. We fixed the door knob finally. I kinda miss my alone time, come to think of it. 🤣 ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-are-stuck-in-a-room-that-wont-move/1031173/24 "2026-06-25T16:38:28Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > We fixed the door knob finally. Finally?? I would have had that fixed day one. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-are-stuck-in-a-room-that-wont-move/1031173/25 "2026-06-25T17:23:53Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > Did you have to pee? > [@Czarcasm](#): > > No. Did you at least establish a pee corner? mmm ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-are-stuck-in-a-room-that-wont-move/1031173/26 "2026-06-25T17:25:42Z")
Nope. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-are-stuck-in-a-room-that-wont-move/1031173/27 "2026-06-25T17:40:48Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > That’s inexcusable. I can think of only one reason to have an emergency phone in an elevator, and this was it. If it doesn’t work the one time it’s needed, why even have the damn thing? I recall seeing a news report years ago about this very issue – someone was stuck in an office building elevator on a Friday after business hours. So he tried the emergency phone, assuming it would go to some actual _emergency_ line. But actually it just routed his call to the customer service line for the company that made the elevator, who was just like “Ok, we’ll send a technician out on Monday.” They didn’t seem to grasp that he was literally calling from the broken elevator where he was trapped right then, or they were not equipped to handle that situation. If I remember the story correctly the poor guy was stuck in the elevator all weekend. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-are-stuck-in-a-room-that-wont-move/1031173/28 "2026-06-25T17:43:39Z")
You may be thinking of [this story](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/04/21/up-and-then-down) from The New Yorker about a guy who was stuck in an elevator in the McGraw-Hill Building for 41 hours. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-are-stuck-in-a-room-that-wont-move/1031173/29 "2026-06-25T17:45:33Z")
Probably, although your link is paywalled so I can’t actually view the article. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-are-stuck-in-a-room-that-wont-move/1031173/30 "2026-06-25T17:46:49Z")
[Here](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/40-hours-in-an-elevator/) is a CBS News article about the same situation. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-are-stuck-in-a-room-that-wont-move/1031173/31 "2026-06-25T17:49:58Z")
Well, yeah. Fixing the knob was low on priority, I guess. I kept saying I won’t do that again. But I did. Dumb me. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-are-stuck-in-a-room-that-wont-move/1031173/32 "2026-06-25T18:05:26Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > > [@wolfpup](#): > > > > I’ve taken stairs up multiple storeys to avoid the cursed things. > > I don’t mind elevators, but I do remember living on the sixth floor of a highrise. Sometimes, the stairs were the best way to go. Down was easy, of course, but up was a great way to get some exercise and stay in shape. Not me. I’ve never felt more represented than by Richard Kind in [Co-op: The Original Cast Recording](https://youtu.be/4HEFXfKwZ3g?t=1330) @ 22:10. Stairs in either direction is a nightmare! ---
**Author:** ![ZosterSandstorm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e0b2c6/32.png) [@ZosterSandstorm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZosterSandstorm)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-are-stuck-in-a-room-that-wont-move/1031173/33 "2026-06-25T18:07:18Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > And when your body is half in, half out, then the elevator suddenly moves again. Faster than you think is possible. At least in the movies I watched. Sometimes it is not half the body but just your head. This does happen. Rarely. But it does. The inside of an elevator is just about the safest place in the world. The technology that keeps elevators from plummeting out of control is _really_ good. It essentially never happens. By incidents per total distance traveled elevators beat cars, bikes, planes, trains, pretty much everything else by a wide margin on safety. Every elevator injury/fatality happens when people try to exit from between floors or crawl onto the top of the car to get out of a stuck elevator car. It’s not worth it. Wait for the fire department. For reference: 12,000 Americans die from falling down stairs every year. 400 die from falling in the shower. 0 to 1 die from plummeting elevators. About 30 die from doing stupid things in elevators that amount to finding a way to enter the elevator shaft outside of the car (half of them elevator technicians, half ordinary users).. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-are-stuck-in-a-room-that-wont-move/1031173/34 "2026-06-25T18:09:44Z")
> [@ZosterSandstorm](#): > > For reference: 12,000 Americans die from falling down stairs every year. 400 die from falling in the shower. 0 to 1 die from plummeting elevators. About 30 die from doing stupid things in elevators that amount to finding a way to enter the elevator shaft outside of the car (half of them elevator technicians, half ordinary users). Omen 3. Final Destination. LA Law. 'Nuff said. ---
**Author:** ![ricepad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@ricepad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricepad)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-are-stuck-in-a-room-that-wont-move/1031173/35 "2026-06-25T18:19:08Z")
I was stuck for less than a minute in an elevator once, but it was scary just the same. I worked on the 5th floor of a 6-story building. One time I got on the elevator, pressed the button for the first (ground) floor, and waited. The elevator plunged to the basement, stopped briefly - in which time I started jabbing furiously at the ‘door open’ button - then shot up to the 6th floor. The doors opened there, and I could not get out fast enough. After that, I refused to get on any of the elevators in that bank. I either used the bank of elevators on the other end of the building, or walked up/down the stairs. Then there was the time my HS girlfriend and I got caught in an elevator at the local junior college on a weekend… ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-are-stuck-in-a-room-that-wont-move/1031173/36 "2026-06-25T18:25:11Z")
You just described pretty much the opposite of my dilemma. 😁 ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-are-stuck-in-a-room-that-wont-move/1031173/37 "2026-06-25T18:37:10Z")
Surveillance camera footage (edited and sped up) from the New Yorker article: [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/p_bMhNI_TY8/hqdefault.jpg "Footage of a Man Who Spent 41 Hours Trapped in an Elevator") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_bMhNI_TY8) ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-are-stuck-in-a-room-that-wont-move/1031173/38 "2026-06-25T19:17:18Z")
When first built, my Dad’s senior coop had elevator problems. As relayed second hand through people who might only have had part of the story… When something happened that caused the elevator doors to start to close, and then open again, the elevator would _later_ become stuck. So the person that blocked the door would not get stuck, but someone a few rides later would. Something was out of adjustment, and it took a few weeks to figure it out. This was on a brand new elevator. I was visiting, and my Dad and another guy got stuck. They tried using the call button in the elevator, but it would hang up after 30 seconds. I’m outside the elevator listening to all of this. When it became clear a call from inside wouldn’t go through, I found the emergency number for the elevator company online and called them. Apparently I got the same number the calls from inside were going to, and they had wondered what was going on with calls coming in and then dropping. Anyway, they said to call 911, because the only tech in the area was hours away. The fire department came out, got into the elevator control room, and hit the reset button, which put the elevator back in service. Soon after that was set to be standard procedure. If the elevator got stuck, someone would go into the control room and hit the reset button. Eventually it was fixed, but it became a whole thing between the residents/owners, the company that built the place, the company that was managing it, and the elevator company. I don’t know how it was all resolved, but I do agree with the residents/owners that they should not have any expense related to a brand new elevator failing. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-are-stuck-in-a-room-that-wont-move/1031173/39 "2026-06-25T21:00:20Z")
> [@pullin](#): > > Of course I have my tales of woe regarding airline travel, with inexplicable gate/plane changes, cancellations, and getting stuck places I don’t want to be – but these occur inside the safety of airport terminals and aren’t as nerve-wracking. I live near Boston and had to fly to California on short notice for a funeral. The cheapest flight I could find left from Providence, which is a little over an hour by car. I drove down, boarded the flight, and after takeoff there was a problem so the plane had to divert. It landed in Boston. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2026, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-are-stuck-in-a-room-that-wont-move/1031173/40 "2026-06-26T18:22:01Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > my Dad’s senior coop They keep seniors in coops now? I don’t think I’ve ever gotten stuck in an elevator, but I once rented a VRBO in Hawai’i that had a problematic elevator. We were on the third floor of a condo complex. When we arrived we used the elevator to get up there. While ascending, the elevator was making some horrific grinding and thumping noises. After two ascents, we were too scared to ride it any more, so we lugged the rest of our bags up the stairs and called the condo management. Within a few hours, a sign had been posted on the elevator that it was out of service. The next day we saw someone working on the elevator, and after that the sign was taken down, but the elevator was still making weird noises. The next day the sign was up again, and stayed up for the duration of our stay. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-are-stuck-in-a-room-that-wont-move/1031173.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-are-stuck-in-a-room-that-wont-move/1031173.md?page=3)