Trapped: 40 Hours In An Elevator....timelapse...true story.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Trapped: 40 Hours In An Elevator....timelapse...true story. (Page 1 of 2)

Posted: 4/16/2008 9:16:29 AM EDT

Video Link

Trapped: 40 Hours In An Elevator....timelapse...true story.
CCTV:Nicholas White was a thirty-four-year-old production manager at Business Week. He was working late on a special assignment and wanted a cigarette. He told a colleague that he’d be right back and, leaving his jacket behind, headed downstairs. Thus commenced the longest smoke break of Nicholas White’s life, a harrowing experience that began at around eleven o’clock on a Friday night in October, 1999.

The Business Week offices were located on the forty-third floor of the McGraw-Hill Building in mid-town Manhattan. When White finished his cigarette, he returned to the lobby, got into Car No. 30 and pressed the button marked 43. The car accelerated. It was an express elevator, with no stops below the thirty-ninth floor, and the building was deserted. But after a moment, White felt a jolt. The lights went out, immediately flashed on again and then the elevator stopped.

This happened in 1999 but this footage has only recently been made available....check this website....

Credit: http://www.newyorker.com/online/video/2008/04/21/080421_elevators

What would you have done?

Posted: 4/16/2008 9:18:17 AM EDT

[#1]

Hit the button (although where I work nobody answers it after hours), curl up for a nap, decide which corner of the elevator is the bathroom.

Posted: 4/16/2008 9:20:26 AM EDT

[#2]

Man that blows.

I would have done the same thing he did.

Posted: 4/16/2008 9:22:04 AM EDT

[#3]

I would have sued the owner of the building for not having a 24/7 operational elevator alarm.

Posted: 4/16/2008 9:22:05 AM EDT

[#4]

I was trapped in one for about six hours once, that was enough.

Posted: 4/16/2008 9:23:03 AM EDT

[#5]

That is crazy. I wonder if he had a fear of elevators after that?

Posted: 4/16/2008 9:23:37 AM EDT

[#6]

I'd have another cigarette, and ponder what to do next.

Posted: 4/16/2008 9:23:51 AM EDT

[#7]

Quoted:
I would have sued the owner of the building for not having a 24/7 operational elevator alarm.

I forgot that one. I also should have added...mark the time in the elevator as chargable.

Posted: 4/16/2008 9:27:32 AM EDT

[#8]

Watching the video made it kinda funny. It looked like he walked in circles.......

Posted: 4/16/2008 9:27:33 AM EDT

[#9]

Posted: 4/16/2008 9:28:46 AM EDT

[#10]

It doesn't seem like he tried very hard to get out.

Posted: 4/16/2008 9:28:58 AM EDT

[#11]

Quoted:
I was trapped in one for about six hours once, that was enough.

Same here, but I was with a freaked out psycho chick who insisted on screaming the whole time, even though everybody knew we were stuck and were working on getting us out. Hell, San Jose FD even brought us sodas and sammiches.

Posted: 4/16/2008 9:29:45 AM EDT

[#12]

Quoted:
I'd have another cigarette, and ponder what to do next.

+1

I would be pissed after the first couple of hours though.

Posted: 4/16/2008 9:30:33 AM EDT

[#13]

At least he had his smokes.

Posted: 4/16/2008 9:31:25 AM EDT

[#14]

Quoted:
I was trapped in one for about six hours once, that was enough.

Was trapped in one for 3 hours in Rome. Kept hitting the alarm and the hotel clerk finally came on the intercom and told me to quit screwing with his break time.

I proceeded to tell that ass wipe I didn't particularly care for being stranded in elevators for hours.

Posted: 4/16/2008 9:31:52 AM EDT

[#15]

In 40 hours, he didn't have to take a shit? Not even a leak?

I'm pretty sure I would have pinched a loaf, at some point.

Posted: 4/16/2008 9:33:19 AM EDT

[#16]

Quoted:
In 40 hours, he didn't have to take a shit? Not even a leak?

I'm pretty sure I would have pinched a loaf, at some point.

I could probably hold off on crapping but I would definitely have been pissing in one of the corners.

Posted: 4/16/2008 9:33:27 AM EDT

[#17]

I don't know anything about elevators.

Why couldn't he get out through the top like in the movies?

Posted: 4/16/2008 9:36:06 AM EDT

[#18]

Actually considering I always have my cell phone on me I would be calling the FD to get me the fuck out.

Posted: 4/16/2008 9:36:32 AM EDT

[#19]

better to be trapped in an elevator alone for 40 hours than to be trapped in a packed elevator for 40 hours

Posted: 4/16/2008 9:36:47 AM EDT

[#20]

My grandfather (God rest his soul) was an engineer for Schindler Elevator. I think he focussed on the safety mechanisms. He had a few patents, as well.

I visited him at work one day, and I was shocked to learn that most of the engineers took the stairs. Now, many of them needed the exercise (I'm sure that's all it was), but it's still a bit unsettling.

Posted: 4/16/2008 9:37:16 AM EDT

[#21]

Quoted:
better to be trapped in an elevator alone for 40 hours than to be trapped in a packed elevator for 40 hours

Fuck that I would end up going to jail after they got me out for killing everyone else.

Posted: 4/16/2008 9:37:33 AM EDT

[#22]

Quoted:
I don't know anything about elevators.

Why couldn't he get out through the top like in the movies?

I think you have to have a ladder access the top. Even then, where would you go?

Posted: 4/16/2008 9:39:17 AM EDT

[#23]

Quoted:
In 40 hours, he didn't have to take a shit? Not even a leak?

I'm pretty sure I would have pinched a loaf, at some point.

I sure as heck would do my best to hold it.

Posted: 4/16/2008 9:40:56 AM EDT

[#24]

Quoted:

Quoted:
I don't know anything about elevators.

Why couldn't he get out through the top like in the movies?

I think you have to have a ladder access the top. Even then, where would you go?

I would think you could stand on the top of the elevator and open the doors to the 40th floor. But, again, I don't know anything about elevators.

Posted: 4/16/2008 9:42:29 AM EDT

[#25]

Quoted:
better to be trapped in an elevator alone for 40 hours than to be trapped in a packed elevator for 40 hours

Unless I'm stuck in one with a totally hot chick.

Posted: 4/16/2008 9:42:35 AM EDT

[#26]

Question if you were CCW and were in this situation. What Would You Do?

Posted: 4/16/2008 9:42:50 AM EDT

[#27]

Wondering if the camera hidden? He didn't to try to get anyone's attention if it wasn't. Suprised he wasn't caught playing a little 5 on 1.

I'd probably try to set a off the fire/smoke alarms with my lighter.

Posted: 4/16/2008 9:44:32 AM EDT

[#28]

Quoted:

Quoted:
I was trapped in one for about six hours once, that was enough.

Same here, but I was with a freaked out psycho chick who insisted on screaming the whole time, even though everybody knew we were stuck and were working on getting us out. Hell, San Jose FD even brought us sodas and sammiches.

No one knew I was in there. The building was under construction and I was on my way back up in the freight elevator when everyone went home for the day and shut everything down. I worked by myself and I had no idea that everybody was planning on leaving at 4:30.

The biggest problem was that the emergency phone system did not go to anyone locally yet and I got some woman in another state on the phone. I had one hell of a time convincing her that this was not a prank call and then trying to explain to her where the building was. Eventually the police and fire department showed up.

Posted: 4/16/2008 9:50:31 AM EDT

[#29]

I just finished the article that went with the video. He tried to get out, but it was an express elevator that didn't open until like the 30th floor. You can see in the video that when he opened the doors, there was a wall facing him.

He did piss, he opened the doors and pissed on the wall.

He tried to get out through the access door on top of the elevator, but it was locked from the outside. Apparently they almost always are; they're for firefighters and rescuers to get into the elevator, not for passengers to get out. It's almost always safer to stay in the elevator.

This is the end of the article:

"White never went back to work at the magazine. Caught up in media attention (which he shunned but thrilled to), prodded by friends, and perhaps provoked by overly solicitous overtures from McGraw-Hill, White fell under the sway of renown and grievance, and then that of the legal establishment. He got a lawyer, and came to believe that returning to work might signal a degree of mental fitness detrimental to litigation. Instead, he spent eight weeks in Anguilla. Eventually, Business Week had to let him go. The lawsuit he filed, for twenty-five million dollars, against the building’s management and the elevator-maintenance company, took four years. They settled for an amount that White is not allowed to disclose, but he will not contest that it was a low number, hardly six figures. He never learned why the elevator stopped; there was talk of a power dip, but nothing definite. Meanwhile, White no longer had his job, which he’d held for fifteen years, and lost all contact with his former colleagues. He lost his apartment, spent all his money, and searched, mostly in vain, for paying work. He is currently unemployed.

Looking back on the experience now, with a peculiarly melancholic kind of bewilderment, he recognizes that he walked onto an elevator one night, with his life in one kind of shape, and emerged from it with his life in another. Still, he now sees that it wasn’t so much the elevator that changed him as his reaction to it. He has come to terms with the trauma of the experience but not with his decision to pursue a lawsuit instead of returning to work. If anything, it prolonged the entrapment. He won’t blame the elevator."

Posted: 4/16/2008 9:58:17 AM EDT

[#30]

Quoted:
I don't know anything about elevators.

Why couldn't he get out through the top like in the movies?

In the real world those hatches are bolted shut.

Posted: 4/16/2008 10:00:49 AM EDT

[#31]

Quoted:
I don't know anything about elevators.

Why couldn't he get out through the top like in the movies?

It was an express elevator, no stops (lobby doors) for 39 floors so even if he made it to the top of the elevator cab, he would have to climb 30+ stories up to reach the next set of elevator lobby doors.

Posted: 4/16/2008 10:07:58 AM EDT

[#32]

That is horrible.

Posted: 4/16/2008 10:32:04 AM EDT

[#33]

I got stuck in a freight elevator for a little less than an hour one night at a Sprint switch site in Fort Worth. There was an emergency phone in there, but some woman in Kansas City answered when I picked it up. She didn't have the right phone numbers to get in touch with the regular people who worked in that building, and had to wake someone up from building maintenance at home to get it opened for me.

Posted: 4/16/2008 10:36:21 AM EDT

[#34]

Quoted:

Question if you were CCW and were in this situation. What Would You Do?

Funny yu shold mention this. It's exactly what I imagined. What if you were in an elevator trapped with a few other people, and eventually someone spots your carry gun?

What if they are all anti-gun libs, and they begin to demand that you turn it over to them or give one of them the ammo so they can feel safe?

I can tell you that I would do my best to assure them that I was a normal person, but there's no way I'm handing anything over. But then you have to worry about them falsely accusing you of holding them hostage when the rescue finally comes.

Posted: 4/16/2008 10:48:28 AM EDT

[#35]

dam that would suck

im sure id rub one out ...ill have to look for cameras if im ever in the position

Posted: 4/16/2008 10:52:28 AM EDT

[#36]

He sued them for $25 million? I feel bad for the guy, but geez, that's pure asshattery right there.

Posted: 4/16/2008 10:55:17 AM EDT

[#37]

Quoted:
I just finished the article that went with the video. He tried to get out, but it was an express elevator that didn't open until like the 30th floor. You can see in the video that when he opened the doors, there was a wall facing him.

He did piss, he opened the doors and pissed on the wall.

He tried to get out through the access door on top of the elevator, but it was locked from the outside. Apparently they almost always are; they're for firefighters and rescuers to get into the elevator, not for passengers to get out. It's almost always safer to stay in the elevator.

This is the end of the article:

"White never went back to work at the magazine. Caught up in media attention (which he shunned but thrilled to), prodded by friends, and perhaps provoked by overly solicitous overtures from McGraw-Hill, White fell under the sway of renown and grievance, and then that of the legal establishment. He got a lawyer, and came to believe that returning to work might signal a degree of mental fitness detrimental to litigation. Instead, he spent eight weeks in Anguilla. Eventually, Business Week had to let him go. The lawsuit he filed, for twenty-five million dollars, against the building’s management and the elevator-maintenance company, took four years. They settled for an amount that White is not allowed to disclose, but he will not contest that it was a low number, hardly six figures. He never learned why the elevator stopped; there was talk of a power dip, but nothing definite. Meanwhile, White no longer had his job, which he’d held for fifteen years, and lost all contact with his former colleagues. He lost his apartment, spent all his money, and searched, mostly in vain, for paying work. He is currently unemployed.

Looking back on the experience now, with a peculiarly melancholic kind of bewilderment, he recognizes that he walked onto an elevator one night, with his life in one kind of shape, and emerged from it with his life in another. Still, he now sees that it wasn’t so much the elevator that changed him as his reaction to it. He has come to terms with the trauma of the experience but not with his decision to pursue a lawsuit instead of returning to work. If anything, it prolonged the entrapment. He won’t blame the elevator."

wow...
It sounds like he tried to milk it and ended up ruining his life. I can't help but feel bad for him, despite his outrageous attempt to sue.

Posted: 4/16/2008 11:35:50 AM EDT

[#38]

I wouldn't mind being trapped with a Polish maid for 2 days:
Hot Polish Chick Trapped for Two Days in Elevator

Posted: 4/16/2008 11:41:59 AM EDT

[#39]

Quoted:
In 40 hours, he didn't have to take a shit? Not even a leak?

I'm pretty sure I would have pinched a loaf, at some point.

Opening the doors and pissing down the narrow space between the elevator shaft wall and the gap in the elevator floor works.

Posted: 4/16/2008 11:43:12 AM EDT

[#40]

Quoted:

Quoted:

Question if you were CCW and were in this situation. What Would You Do?

Funny yu shold mention this. It's exactly what I imagined. What if you were in an elevator trapped with a few other people, and eventually someone spots your carry gun?

Concealed means concealed. No one has ever seen my gun unless I wanted them to.

Posted: 4/16/2008 11:51:42 AM EDT

[#41]

Quoted:

Quoted:
In 40 hours, he didn't have to take a shit? Not even a leak?

I'm pretty sure I would have pinched a loaf, at some point.

I could probably hold off on crapping but I would definitely have been pissing in one of the corners.

Maybe one of the times he opened the doors was to piss down the wall.

And yeah, that would suck big time.

Posted: 4/16/2008 11:55:35 AM EDT

[#42]

took four years. They settled for an amount that White is not allowed to disclose, but he will not contest that it was a low number, hardly six figures.

After all that I wouldn't have settled for so little.

Posted: 4/16/2008 11:59:47 AM EDT

[#43]

I was trapped in one for about ten minutes. I musclefucked the door open and jumped down to the lower floor that the unit was trapped between. No big deal.

Posted: 4/16/2008 12:07:09 PM EDT

[#44]

Quoted:

Quoted:

Question if you were CCW and were in this situation. What Would You Do?

Funny yu shold mention this. It's exactly what I imagined. What if you were in an elevator trapped with a few other people, and eventually someone spots your carry gun?

What if they are all anti-gun libs, and they begin to demand that you turn it over to them or give one of them the ammo so they can feel safe?

I can tell you that I would do my best to assure them that I was a normal person, but there's no way I'm handing anything over. But then you have to worry about them falsely accusing you of holding them hostage when the rescue finally comes.

Did you really even think before you typed this? The elevator is broken, but somehow you held everyone hostage because you have a CCW?

Why does possessing gun change anything at all other than your self defense to a live or die moment?

Posted: 4/16/2008 12:08:43 PM EDT

[#45]

Quoted:
I wouldn't mind being trapped with a Polish maid for 2 days:
Hot Polish Chick Trapped for Two Days in Elevator

Yeah, but you would've been in there with her mother too...

Posted: 4/16/2008 12:15:05 PM EDT

[#46]

Quoted:

Quoted:
I wouldn't mind being trapped with a Polish maid for 2 days:
Hot Polish Chick Trapped for Two Days in Elevator

Yeah, but you would've been in there with her mother too...

cool

2 fantasies down at one time.....

TXL

Posted: 4/16/2008 12:19:03 PM EDT

[#47]

Quoted:

took four years. They settled for an amount that White is not allowed to disclose, but he will not contest that it was a low number, hardly six figures.

After all that I wouldn't have settled for so little.

Doubtless he was facing a loss at trial, sub 100K offer is about what it would cost to defend and win the case he brought against the companies. Then he's facing paying THEIR costs.

He settled because his case BLEW.

Posted: 4/16/2008 12:20:28 PM EDT

[#48]

Sounds familiar. Didn't R Kelly Have a whole series of songs about this?

Posted: 4/16/2008 12:44:09 PM EDT

[#49]

Quoted:
dam that would suck

im sure id rub one out ...ill have to look for cameras if im ever in the position

Dude it's ~~1984~~ 2008 if you're in a building you're on camera, especially in an elevator. Where I work, all you see is a black cylinder about 1/2 inch in diameter and about 2 inches long.

Posted: 4/16/2008 12:46:53 PM EDT

[#50]

Quoted:

Quoted:
dam that would suck

im sure id rub one out ...ill have to look for cameras if im ever in the position

Dude it's ~~1984~~ 2008 if you're in a building you're on camera, especially in an elevator. Where I work, all you see is a black cylinder about 1/2 inch in diameter and about 2 inches long.

If you're in a major city within view of a building you're on camera, these days.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Trapped: 40 Hours In An Elevator....timelapse...true story. (Page 1 of 2)

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