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 Frozen
  
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Gender: Male
Three-D
 |  |  | Be careful with doors!!
< on 11/18/2003 8:44 AM >
|  | | | Story.
There is a section of the basement of my dorm, near where the laundry room is, that is always closed off to the public by a ceiling-high gate sporting a padlock. Past the gate is a small room with 3 doors. One of them I knew lead to the sub-basement (and then to the steam tunnels), I didn't know where the other two lead.
Tonight the gate was left open (obviously someone meant to come back later to close it) so I decided to quick grab my camera and have a little look-see. I dusguised myself by throwing a bath towel over my shoulder so it looked like I just came from doing laundry in the laundry room. When I got back and through the unlocked gate, I found out that the sub-basement door was locked, and so was the other one, but the double doors on the left were unlocked.
(door I went through)
I went through the unlocked door making sure to close it behind me incase any of the workers should come back and notice it ajar. I was in another small room. To my left was a similar grate to the one that had been unlocked, this one leading directly outside to a loading-road thing that runs under the building. Lots of cold air was blowing into the room through it. Straight ahead of me was a door labled "Maintainence Office" with a doorbell next to it. Here is a picture looking back at the door I came through.
(Looking back the way I just came from)
I decided against going into the office since there were likely to be workers in there. So I quickly snapped a few photos and turned to go back out the way I came.
But the doorknob didn't turn. I tried again. No luck. Not good. So, feeling confident in my disguise, I decided to buzz the doorbell on the office door and pretend I innocently wandered in there out of curiosity. No one answered. I tried the door, it too was locked. I examined the gate leading outside. It was secured with a padlock. I was locked in tight. I looked for keys in the room, there were none. I was in a t-shirt and it was getting cold. I was getting nervous. I knocked/pounded on the door I originally came through, hoping someone would hear and open it for me. No luck.
I'm actually still inside that little room, posting this from my laptop.
Just kidding. Thanking the deities for a mild November, but getting colder every second anyway, I turned my attention back to the padlocked gate. Finally I was able to unlock the bottom half of one of the sides even though the top was welded shut. I hunched down and was able to *barely* squeeze my way out, scraping my hand and getting rust all over my clean, white pants in the process. But I was free, off into the night!
Moral of the story: Check to see if the door you just went through is going to lock behind you!
Even if you have no reason to suspect it would!!
(like this one...who makes a door that is locked on the inside but unlocked on the outisde??)
Just thought I'd share my small adventure and advice with you all.
Urban Exploration |
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Freak
  
Location: Usually Alaska, now MSP.
Gender: Male
Hypocrite
| | | Re: Be careful with doors!!
<Reply # 1 on 11/18/2003 9:03 AM >
|  | | | My university has something like this, they call them "student traps". Basically it's a section of steam tunnel with two doors, each openable from the outside but locked on the inside, once you're between the doors you're stuck unless you prop one open or have a teammate on the outside. The traps have alarms on each door and supposedly some have a phone or button you can push to alert the cops or power plant workers that you're stuck there.
I'd heard about these from maintenance workers and from some students (I hesitate to call them explorers) who got stuck in one while tunneling drunk. I never quite believed it, and when I brought it up on another discussion list no one could believe that such a system was legal (what if someone got trapped during a fire?). Then last year I found one, and had one of my buddies go in and test it. We found out that it does indeed trap you between the doors (we set off the alarm doing this, so after that we booked it out of there). According to maintenance workers these are all over the place in our tunnels, but I've only seen them at the entrances to the power/physical plant. I'm always careful to check doors though!
Turn off the internet and go play outside.
http://spamusement...hp/comics/view/137 |
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Asylunt
Location: MPLS
Gender: Male
The Friendly Beer!
| |  | | Re: Be careful with doors!!
<Reply # 2 on 11/18/2003 9:17 AM >
| | | | Sounds like you had an excellent time Frozen, good to hear you got out though!
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." Mark Twain |
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PonyGrl420
Location: NY
Gender: Female
huh??
| |  | | Re: Be careful with doors!!
<Reply # 3 on 11/18/2003 9:53 AM >
| | | | thast why when ever I go somewhere I always test to see if a door will lock, and allot of the time if im in a place where a slightly ajar door wount be noticed, i stick somthin in it to leave it open a bit incase it somehow dose get stuck if it shuts.
Glad you got out!! thats another reason its good to have a cell phone and a buddy with you.
[last edit 11/18/2003 9:54 AM by PonyGrl420 - edited 1 times]
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Servo
| | Re: Be careful with doors!!
<Reply # 4 on 11/18/2003 4:17 PM >
| | | | Posted by Freak
My university has something like this, they call them "student traps".
[..]
and when I brought it up on another discussion list no one could believe that such a system was legal (what if someone got trapped during a fire?).
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Yikes, I'll have to remember that if/when I go tunneling. It's an interesting deterrent if word gets around about them, but I'd think the suits would be much more worried about the legalities of creating a man-trap in an enclosed space than the students being down in the tunnels. You've just replaced one danger (steam lines) with another (trapped in a space, having to rely on someone else to get you out).
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Shane
Moderator
Location: Bronx, NY
Gender: Male
| |  |  | | | Re: Be careful with doors!!
<Reply # 5 on 11/18/2003 4:50 PM >
| | | | Yeah, locked doors can be tricky. I also learned my lesson the hard way in my earlier days of exploring. I took the fire exit at a movie theatre, and ended up being stuck on an outside balcony on the third floor. Luckily I was able to pound on a door for a while and someone heard me and let me back in. I now test all doors before going past them and I picked up a couple of doorstops that I bring with me on occasion.
"Because there's no possibility of real disaster, real risk, we're left with no chance for real salvation. Real elation. Real excitement. Joy. Discovery. Invention. The laws that keep us safe, these same laws condemn us to boredom. Without access to true chaos, we'll never have true peace. Unless everything can get worse, it won't get any better." -Chuck Palahniuk |
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Decoy
 
Location: Leslieville
Gender: Male
Oh I have slipped the bonds of earth...
| | Re: Be careful with doors!!
<Reply # 6 on 11/18/2003 5:00 PM >
| | | | Jeebus. Has anyone heard about these in the York U tunnels?
It's a drag, it's a bore, it's really such a pitty
To be lookin' at the board, not lookin' at the city. |
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Frozen
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Gender: Male
Three-D
| | | Re: Be careful with doors!!
<Reply # 7 on 11/18/2003 6:36 PM >
| | | | Wow, I'm sure these student traps don't comply with fire codes! I'm pretty certain there aren't any where I'm at, but I'll be sure to keep an eye out.
Urban Exploration |
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RadEd
| | Re: Be careful with doors!!
<Reply # 8 on 11/18/2003 7:26 PM >
| | | | Perhaps you could slip a card over the locking mechanism while you close the door so it wont lock?
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Freak
Location: Usually Alaska, now MSP.
Gender: Male
Hypocrite
| | | Re: Be careful with doors!!
<Reply # 9 on 11/18/2003 9:11 PM >
| | | | Posted by Shane
Yeah, locked doors can be tricky. I also learned my lesson the hard way in my earlier days of exploring. I took the fire exit at a movie theatre, and ended up being stuck on an outside balcony on the third floor. Luckily I was able to pound on a door for a while and someone heard me and let me back in. I now test all doors before going past them and I picked up a couple of doorstops that I bring with me on occasion.
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I've done that too... it was so embarassing I must have repressed the memory until now  I could have climbed down the ladder but I would have been visible to basically everyone on main street, and since it was a small town I knew the cops would have nothing better to do than come harass me. Eventually someone noticed me through the window and let me back in.
And with the student traps, It's possible that the locks disengage if the fire alarm goes off, if so then that could be a way to escape by holding your lighter under the smoke detector or sprinkler for a minute (except our tunnels don't have sprinklers).
edit: can't spell
again: still can't spell!
[last edit 11/18/2003 9:13 PM by Freak - edited 2 times]
Turn off the internet and go play outside.
http://spamusement...hp/comics/view/137 |
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Mark
Very Noble Donor
Location: South Carolina
Gender: Male
What is a lion, king of the savannah, when hes at the south pole?
| | Re: Be careful with doors!!
<Reply # 10 on 11/18/2003 9:21 PM >
| | | | (blushes) Yep had the same problem once. Took the door right off the hinges made me so mad. I left the hing pins on the floor in a neat little pile and wrote the words "safety Hazard" Also its against a fire code I believe. The best part. About two years later the doors were made so you could get out. One door was padlocked and the other let you in the powerplant. The padlocks at my school are easy to pop open.
"If the threat level goes up its probably because of me." "I am looking for a girl who enjoys headbutting beltbuckles" |
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The Lost Flock
Location: Montreal, QC
Gender: Male
baaah.
| | | | Re: Be careful with doors!!
<Reply # 11 on 11/18/2003 10:06 PM >
| | | | Posted by RadEd
Perhaps you could slip a card over the locking mechanism while you close the door so it wont lock?
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If you check a door and find that it will lock behind you, but still want to go on past it, I have a great tip. All you need is a piece of random paper, fold it up and put it in front of the locking part, make sure it's thin enough to let the door close completely. That way it still looks closed, and if you get the right thickness for the paper it can make the door seem locked when given light tugs, requiring a good shove to open it. Just carry around loose sheets of paper and you're all set.
-The Lost Flock
The Lost Flock is finding it's way.
Scaffolding is like monkey bars for adults. |
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Asylunt
Location: MPLS
Gender: Male
The Friendly Beer!
| | | | Re: Be careful with doors!!
<Reply # 12 on 11/18/2003 11:09 PM >
| | | | even better, watergate rig the thing with some small pieces of duct tape!
Asylunt
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." Mark Twain |
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Decoy
Location: Leslieville
Gender: Male
Oh I have slipped the bonds of earth...
| | Re: Be careful with doors!!
<Reply # 13 on 11/19/2003 1:53 AM >
| | | | Lol! Watergate-rig the thing? Never heard the old "ductape-o-matic" trick called that before.
It's a drag, it's a bore, it's really such a pitty
To be lookin' at the board, not lookin' at the city. |
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uem-Tux
Iron Wok Jan
Location: Montreal
Gender: Male
UE Geek
| | | | Re: Be careful with doors!!
<Reply # 14 on 11/19/2003 4:13 AM >
|  | | | UEM almost locked ourselves in emergency stairwells a couple of times in the Montreal Eatons Building. Since a particularly scary incident, we now tend to be more careful about doors, and when they can't be opened again, we prop them open with some convenient object (like a glove)
Actually, when it's not a purposeful trap, you'd be surprised how often doors like this have a convenient object just lying around. Usually a piece of cardboard or something. We've found those very convenient. 
[last edit 11/19/2003 4:15 AM by uem-Tux - edited 1 times]
Urban Exploration Montreal
Why are you the way that you are? |
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Intalex
This member has been banned
Ascended Being
| | Re: Be careful with doors!!
<Reply # 15 on 11/19/2003 4:17 AM >
| | | | Since having to kick a door down using a maneouver straight out of the matrix, I now carry a doorhandle. The same one from the door I kicked down.
It's actually helped me get into some places that couldn't be opened up because they didn't have a doorhandle.
"What's that smell?" "Oh that would be me, I've been swimming in raw sewage, I love it!" - Naked Gun |
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Asylunt
Location: MPLS
Gender: Male
The Friendly Beer!
| | | | Re: Be careful with doors!!
<Reply # 16 on 11/19/2003 4:47 AM >
| | | | Posted by Decoy_MM
Lol! Watergate-rig the thing? Never heard the old "ductape-o-matic" trick called that before.
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During the Watergate scandal, they used the trick of taping the locking mechanism down to gain entry later on, this is why I refer to it as Watergate-rigging.
Asylunt
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." Mark Twain |
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Frozen
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Gender: Male
Three-D
| | | Re: Be careful with doors!!
<Reply # 17 on 11/19/2003 5:12 AM >
| | | | Posted by Twin Turbo
Since having to kick a door down using a maneouver straight out of the matrix, I now carry a doorhandle. The same one from the door I kicked down.
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Where were you trapped?
Urban Exploration |
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Intalex
This member has been banned
Ascended Being
| | Re: Be careful with doors!!
<Reply # 18 on 11/19/2003 5:30 AM >
| | | | Posted by Frozen
Posted by Twin Turbo
Since having to kick a door down using a maneouver straight out of the matrix, I now carry a doorhandle. The same one from the door I kicked down.
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Where were you trapped?
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I really wish I could say that I was in some kind of fantasticly cool room, but it was just an empty room on the second storey of an abandoned factory office. I was looking for records to find out what they made.
I can remember the whole thing really well. I walked into the room, and removed the board blocking up the window. This let a gust of air into the room, causing the door to slam shut. Because it was all crappy and rusted, it wouldn't budge.
I coiled myself up, then sprung out at the door like a snake, and kicked it hard. There was a loud CRUNCH then the door fell down, there were bits of wood from the frame still attatched to the hinges.
Must've looked cool from the corridor. Shame nobody was filming it...
"What's that smell?" "Oh that would be me, I've been swimming in raw sewage, I love it!" - Naked Gun |
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Jester
Location: Vancouver,B.C. Canada
Gender: Male
Always just out of sight...
| | | Re: Be careful with doors!!
<Reply # 19 on 11/19/2003 6:15 AM >
|  | | | That does sound cool ! What video game were you playing, TT ?
It requires wisdom to understand wisdom: the music is nothing if the audience is deaf. |
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