Locked in!

Yes, locked inside to be specific. As if the days couldn’t get more chaotic. This is the week, for my most hopeful and ambitious travel for my folks. My wife also has a work offsite, where she’s flying out in a couple of hours. It’s nearly 10:30pm.

I ordered in some dinner for me, locked the outer safety door of the apartment, latched it all up, then tried closing the inner apartment door and it wouldn’t close shut. It’s been a little erratic lately, but a quick rotation of the knob does it. Today it wouldn’t, but it did on the second attempt. That’s when it dawned on me - I can’t open it - I’m locked inside. My wife’s about to go to bed, prepared to wake up about 4 hours from now.

I tried to unscrew the door lock mechanism, hoping that I could slide the metal plunger but it’s hard to undo something that was screwed in by the landlord maybe 35 years ago. One of the screws is moving freely but won’t come out. I call my father, who stays five minutes away. I tie the door keys, in a cloth bag and throw it carefully, not to have it fall or hang off a tree branch or someone’s apartment parapet. Dad comes upstairs, tries opening the outer door but can’t. Then I realize, I had latched all the bars and locks on the door outside. So even if I cal a locksmith, he’s going to have to pry open the door outside, somehow to access the lock of the inner door.

I doubled down, unlock most of the screws on the locking mechanism, but it won’t come off. That’s because the mechanism is bolted on along the edge of the door - it’s only accessible when the door’s swung open. So I wriggle it, use a thicker screwdriver to make just enough space for me to run another screwdriver to slide the metal-bar open.

It works — I’m out! I thank my dad. I ask my wife to go to bed, and here I am now, writing this blog post.