Gizmodo
A quick cigarette break by Business Week employee Nicholas White turned into a nightmare when his elevator stopped dead in its shaft and trapped him there for a crazy 41 hours—all of it caught on a security camera. It seems like all of the technological developments in elevator design, from Archimedes through Otis' security brake to modern 35-mph cars couldn't help him: even the alarm system didn't work properly. Though it happened a while ago, over at the New Yorker they're running a time-lapsed video of the security footage, and it will send chills down your spine, let me tell you.
White got into elevator car 30 to return to his office in the McGraw-Hill building on Sixth Avenue in New York. It was an express elevator, designed for traffic efficiency, with no stops below the 30th floor, and it jammed around the 13th late on a Friday night. He tried the intercom, sounded the alarm, tried to prize the doors apart and use the escape hatch (you're thinking about Speed now, aren't you?) but to no avail.
Faced with a blind wall behind the doors, no answer to the alarm or shouting and a locked hatch, he got desperate then depressed. He smoked the rest of his cigs, and worried about dehydration. Of course, with all the modern safety features like multiple hoist-ropes and speed brakes he wasn't going to plummet to his death. He was just stuck in a box barely big enough to lie down in. Rescue finally came 41 hours later, and no one knows why the jam happened.
After getting out, White never returned to another day of work. He filed lawsuits, settled for barely 6 figures, and lost his job, savings and apartment. Some would say the event ruined his life, to no fault of his own. He stepped in the elevator a man, and left on a trajectory towards shambles.
Eight different security guards failed to spot him on the camera. Wonder what would happen in a similar situation in the Burj Dubai with it's 46 separate elevators: two being double-deckers that will go the whole 156 floors? Probably a quicker rescue, we suspect.
Head over to the New Yorker to check out the full story and the chilling video: next time you're in an elevator, particularly one of those brand new "buttonless" ones, you'll remember it! [New Yorker]
Comments
"and it jammed around the 13th late on a Friday night."
SEE? THIS is why you're supposed to omit the 13th floor!
Clearly, their slogan WON'T be "Our ElevatorSystem Rocks!"
The "full story" is painfully long - one page of actual story and 7 pages of elevator history. Goddamn New Yorker writers.
This is going to go from the worst 41 hours of his life to the best. He is going to get a whole hell of a lot of money for this.
"He smoked the rest of his cigs, and worried about dehydration."
If i smoked the rest of my cigs, I'd be worrying about when im gonna get some more cigarettes.
Lesson learned: IT IS worth the investment to just always have a couple hits of LSD in your wallet at all times. Sure it degrades from the heat pretty quick, but gawd, what a life saver.
"The crazy part? Eight different security guards failed to spot him on the camera."
They must have thought of the LSD thing too.
ok, we should definitely start a betting pool for how many times this guy rubbed one out. I guess 35
That's why I only smoke in staircases.
Watching that video makes me think those Security Guards need to be fired. How the hell are there that many shift changes without one guy saying "Hey, isn't that that same guy who was in there 5 hours ago?"
Myveryself dreamt of sex in the elevator few nights back and wondered what that one guy was doing in there while me and a hari rebel had it going.
It's like they did this on purpose to get the footage O_o
Anybody else get reminded by the Sims on fast speed by that video?
Someone hasn't seen Die Hard
If you're trapped in an elevator for 41 hours and can't macguyver yourself out, you're a sorry excuse for a man. Honestly, dude.
@nutbastard: They need to start rigging elevators with emergency PSP/DS's as well as one of your car piss doohickeys.
"tried to prize the doors apart"
Uhhh. Pry?
@nutbastard: If i smoked the rest of my cigs, I'd be worrying about when im gonna get some more cigarettes.
Free rehab!
@nutbastard: *shudders* I work on a 13th floor.
Wait, so THAT'S why we had to wait a while for the elevator to come. And why we kept hearing some muffled sobbing through the walls.
This is why i don't trust elevators.
we should have a betting pool for how many times this guy rubbed one out. My guess is 35
@bobman1235:
Yeah - it's pretty much the "Trapped In The Closet" of trapped in the elevator stories.
They later found the jam was caused by an elevator computer that was able to think for itself designed by Michael Ironside.
How do you not go to the bathroom for 40 hours, or was that edited out?
@krizoitz: If you read the end of the story - it happened 4 years ago, he already got a low 6-figure settlement, but the trauma basically ruined his life and the money's gone.
No, seriously.
It nearly took me 41 hours to read the article.
@nojo:
Being a level headed guy, I probably would have ripped the filters off the remaining cigarettes so as not to waste any nicotine on something as inane as filtration. Being a prepared guy means i have rolling papers in my wallet, to re-roll the little bits of tobacco that sit right next to the filters, and also to wipe my ass with after the first 36 hours. Either that or i sacrifice a sock. He he, i've had to do that, in a bind, just pull off a sock for emergency ass-wipeage.
@chucklebuck:
ha, reminds me to listen to "trapped in the drive thru" (weird al)
what about sensors in elevators?
don't they already have calculations on persons onboard, weight of each, statistics with warning when quota exceeds? i don't mean yearly checks although these might predict overload statistically.
@nutbastard: exactly, break in case o' emergency scenario with lsd hits.
@nutbastard: That's the problem! The elevator stopped at the 13th floor, but there was no 13th floor, just brick!
Here I was thinking that the 13th floor is just omitted, when in reality it is solid cement. Learn something new everyday...
In other news, a manned named Nicholas White failed to appear in court to testify against a notrious New York mob boss.
@discounteggroll:
Ha! I'd say 6....the polished metal walls only provided faint similarities to the physique of cameron diaz for the first 2. Then it just got cold. *fap fap fap*
@nutbastard: I am taking you on an inhibited island.
Shall we expedite for blue santoz treasure o' 200,000 lsd hits , do they come burried in a chest?
although I'd rather poop in a sock and tear shirt apart for wipeage.
The article says it happened in October 1999. Oh it was so much more fun then...
A lot of heartless comments here...
@krizoitz: They stated the suit took 4 years to come to a settlement which was "hardly 6 figures". It said he regretted going with the lawsuit rather than just returning to work.
What the hell job did this guy have that no-one noticed an almost 2 day long smoke break?
What I really wanna know is how he held his bio-waste that long.
That's why every elevator that has a security camera should include a roll of scotch tape, a pad of legal paper and a sharpie. That way, you can tape signs to the wall that say "death to America" or "I'm going to kill the President", thus ensuring an immediate visit from law enforcement. Or you could just write, "Help, I'm stuck in the elevator", though that doesn't seem to guarantee any faster response.
@nutbastard: lol! Seriously...if I hadn't quit smoking recently I'd have been eating through the freakin walls!
But damn, 41 hours???? I was a security guard and I check the monitors at least ONCE a shift!
Wow dude. Well, good thing I carry some bars with me everywhere I go.
no cell phone? what about his family? no body notice he was gone for 41 hours?
@Valicious: Inhibited island?
You mean like Great Britain?
Did you notice that the New Yorker post is from the future? Should we warn this guy or does that screw up the time-space continuum?
@discounteggroll:
he wouldn't waste lubricant.
precious bodily fluids.
@Guizzy: even i thought voices got it all wrong , ininhibated you'd've liked to read?
inhibited is partially held back or restrained or prevented;
Sheesh, everyone thinks they are a victim. Yeah, I feel bad for the guy having to sit there for over a day and a half, but that's not worth a 6 figure award.
They should buy him a lunch, maybe a new suit, compensate for lost pay and, with a little luck, no hard feeling from his boss for taking an extra long break.
why does he not have a cell phone?
@chinolam:
if we warn him nobody will ever think of socks as ass wipe-age. or people disclose their Manual stimulations a day.
worryn't brother , the Pookah is responsible.
"Will take him off into an alternative reality, where all the laws of science are reversed, time and space are all mixed up.
Of course, the probability of encountering the Pookah is said by Dublin's cynics to be directly proportional to the number of pints of Guinness Stout you had in the pub that night." RAW
I wonder if he's since killed anyone he's shared an elevator with who complained about the number of stops it was taking.
did he have to go to the bathroom?
@slstsang: If your friend/brother/son was gone for over 24 hours, would you really start looking in elevators? I'd start looking in dumpsters and strip clubs. And dumpsters outside strip clubs.
@Sam6644: looooooong article says he opened the elevator doors and peed down the shaft in hopes that the stream of piss would get someone's attention. He shoulda tried poop.
@Sam6644: RTFA
(pissed through the crack at the bottom of the open doors)
Well... and I thought the GeeWhiz Condom Catheter was useless..."In case of elevator entrapment"
@nutbastard: Damn talk about a bad idea. LSD in a stressful situation is just about the stupidest thing you can do. It'd make things seem much worse than they really were, and they were pretty damn bad to start with.
I'll sit in an elevator for 41 hours for "low six figures" any day. Sure it's an ordeal, but as ordeals go it's not the worst that can happen.
@Dook_In_The_Urinal:
No, it's prize. When using a lever or item to pry something apart, you use the transitive function of the verb, to pry, which is prize.
@bobman1235: Because it's not a story just about this guy. It's a story about elevator stories. That's why this isn't current at all.
1999?
@Zenshai:
nah man, you got it backwards - just a little bit should help you get zen and be ok with where you are. plus maybe you can contact someone psychically that way.
Six figures is fair. I'm assuming that after a few hours stuck in an elevator the average person would just be pissed off but would assume help is on the way. After forty hours I think it's fair to say you've passed the point of absurdity and death would be a major concern. if you've gone unnoticed for two full workdays, I don't think it's a stretch to think it could go on for a couple more days. More importantly, a financial impact will at the very least shake up the building management to ask why they're paying the security agency for absolutely nothing.
Why is the video dated April 21, 2008? Has this happened? will it happen?
Did you guys put that TEXT BUBBLE on the right floor? I counted only 39 stories.
Badongadoodle!™
i think they tapped Shia Labeouf for the movie role of this story - he's looking for a meaty "tom hanks in Cast Away" kinda role. Brett Ratner will direct, and will call it "Not Rushing Anywhere"
-- I hate fucking Brett Ratner....