What if you found yourself trapped in a room of your house with the door lock broken and few tools with you? This is what happened to Fumiko Fumio.
Equipped with a camera and his faithful laptop the blogger diarized his adventure as he lived it. Asking advices on twitter (collected here) and reading the comments on his blog, he managed to find a way of escape.
Note: The post was translated with permission from the blogger. All the pictures are by Fumiko Fumio.
January 16, 17:30. I am locked in my house's study since 14.30. I heard a noise coming from outside and I entered in the room. Then the door jammed and I couldn't get out…In this six mat size room that we use as a study the window to the north is barred preventing y body to escape. To the south there's the door (which is broken and can't be opened), to the east the wall, to the west the closet. My mobile is in another room, then I have my laptop which is unpowered with battery life left of 1.5 hrs. It can be connected to internet trough a wireless LAN but I have a poor reception. The .camera has little battery left. I have a screwdriver and, since I work in this room, I have a ruler – pen- paper and the usual stationery. Have you have any good escape plan to suggest? It's cold!
18, p.s. I sent an email to my family's mobile to ask for updates on their plans. “We are having dinner all together in China town and will get home around 22″ was the answer. It feels like a neighbour’s family having a meal in China town as apparently they don’t include me in “family”. So I'll have to escape relying only on myself and It's my pride as a man.
ドライバーで、ドアノブを、外してみました。
I tried to take off the handle with a driver.
さっきまで若干動いていたドアのなかの金具がまったく動かなくなりました。
The metallic part that I could move a little bit earlier will not move anymore.
South: the door. In front of the door the corridor. East: wall. On the other side of the wall, the kitchen. North: a barred window. Outside the window, the garden and fence. The light in the house of Mr. Ito, the neighbour across the fence is off. He must not be home yet.
東。壁。僕が描いた絵がかけられているだけ。
East. Wall. The only thing on it is one of my drawings.
North. Window. You can't see it because of the blind but there is an iron grating outside to protect us from thieves. Outside in the garden and through rom the chinks of the fence you can peep into Mr. Ito's house. I tried to open the window and yell but no reply. Since this room doesn't open onto the street I know nobody is going to walk by. The only tools I can use are the driver, the ruler, my wallet and nothing else.
So how do I get out of here?
Clockwise from left, a wallet (with various cards inside), coin purse (3 100 Yen coins and 3 10 Yen coins inside), reversible driver, [the action figure of ]Ayanami Rei (Revolteck), an eraser, a pencil, a pen, some body lotion, a bamboo ruler, ipod. As you can see from the picture the handle of the driver is very short and not very useful. Do you have any ideas?
20:20 p.s. I checked the bookmark comments. Since this is not a show for TV there is no switch hidden behind the picture on the wall. The closet is divided in two, up and down, and it's very unlikely I can escape from the lower part. From the upper one it seems I might sneak away but the aperture is in a very high place and since I have haven’t opened it in years maybe it's blocked and won't open. Now I have just tried to break through the upper and the lower part but maybe the pipe where the clothes are hung and the crossbeam are too close to each other and I ended up giving up without being able to escape..
I am using my mother's coats I found inside the closet, wearing them one on top of another as countermeasure against the cold. I wonder when she used to wear this tiger patterned coat… I cannot die dressed like this! It's cold..and what's more… I need to piss!
22:25 .ps. I tested a method I found in the bookmarks and in the trackbacks. I managed to find the pc cord in the drawer. The neighbour Mr. Ito has come back, I tried to call him but he didn't hear me. I got an email from my family. “We are at karaoke and are staying one hour more. Wait for the nikuman we have bought for you”…
I tried to open the upper closet door with a card made into an “L” but the chink is too narrow and only a card as thin as a paper can enter, so I gave up. It’s then I realized it's probably impossible to escape through the upper part of the closet into the ceiling. I moved the table and put a chair on it trying to reach over the closet but my need to urinate became pressing. Urinating directly from the window would be no doubt faster but there's the chance that Mr. Ito may come here after having heard my voice and I'd rather avoid creating other problems. So I decided to use the container of the deodorant and a vinyl bag and made a piss container.
I can urinate in it and then throw the contents outside the window and clean my hands with a wet tissue I found earlier. Even in stressful circumstances I can say I have kept intact my human dignity, health and hygiene! (The pic shows the container before use).
In the meantime I got distracted and fell asleep while looking at an old album, this is not good…. After resting a little I will move the table and escape to the world above the ceiling.
January 17, 00:10 p.s. It's another day and it's now 10 hours I have been in this room. I got an email from my family.”We are eating ramen after the night at karaoke…”
Mr. Ito must be asleep by now. I turned off the radio cassette recorder I had found and closed the window trying to keep up my physical strength. It's an unexpected situation. I climbed onto the chair placed on the table and managed to open the door to the upper part of the closet.
In there was a huge quantity of porn videos and books. Oh my God! It's overwhelming. I stop and think. My pain in the lower back doesn't stop and if I drop these on the floor and managed to reach the ceiling space from the closet would I really be able to escape? Even if there is room between the upper and the lower part of the ceiling is there any exit? In the worse case, I can imagine that when I am up in the little space over the ceiling, my mother and my younger brother) come back. They open the door and find all these porn videos and books on the floor and maybe other relatives are with them. In that case my status would fall to something worse than not being invited to have dinner with my family. No thank you, I'd rather starve in the room above the ceiling.
This is what I’ll do: 1-I drop the porn videos and books on the floor. 2- I find my way into the ceiling and, while I am making sure there's enough room, I hide all the videos and books in the ceiling. I hide all the videos and books so that not even Buddha would notice. Fortunately I have plenty of time to do it given that my silly family is having fun out and about.
No sooner said than done; I start to put my plan into action. Let's go!
3:30 p.s. I'm reading your comments and twits, thanks! I got an email from my family. “We are tired. Thinking to stop at aunties’ house in Yokosuka tonite …. it's a joooke!” they sound drunk…
I tried to move the metallic lock of the door with the antenna of the radio control but it doesn't move. Maybe I did something wrong when I forced the handle taking it off. It made a sound like “crack”. My mom seems to be quite drunk so I don't expect her to help me. This is my current situation…
I ‘m stuck as you can see. Is there any other route? I hear the sound of the newspaper guy's bike, when he gets close to the room I'll try to turning the light on and off.
4:30 p.s. I am still reading all the comments, twitter and trackbacks. Thank you! 30 minutes ago I heard the sound of my brother's car.
After that I heard someone opening the door with the key and immediately afterwards the sound of slippers. I'm safe, or so I thought, but nobody came in this direction.
Maybe my very drunk mother went directly to her bedroom like the red arrow in the sketch above and it seems she forgot about me. After I pounded on the door and screamed I heard a very heavy deep breathing like a distant rumble of thunder…No way. I'm tired, it's cold and putting on all the clothes I found in the closet, I now look like a marshmallow man. I think I'm going to make a blanket of the carpet and sleep. I don't think I'll be able to sleep much since the cold penetrates from the floor but its better I take a rest before deciding what to do. Good night!
7:55 p.s. I am awake. I've just finished reading the bookmarks and twitter. The flooring is too cold and I can't sleep. The battery of my camera is dead so I have no pictures anymore.
When I was making a blanket of the carpet, I found a box room under the floor. One of the handles to open it is missing and the other is rusty and it doesn't move. So I tried to lever it up with the driver. I didn't know such a space existed… My mother seems to be still sleeping.
8:25 p.s. I heard a noise, my mother is up. She doesn't have the mobile with her so she's not replying to my emails anymore.
I opened the trap in the floor and got down but it doesn't look like I can find any way of escape down there. Now I'll try to crawl along the ceiling to my mother's room and remind her of my existence. It's not only because I want to get out of this locked room, it's also because I want to renew ties with my family. Get going!
9:30 p.s. The situation has changed. Now I only have one laptop and a driver as tools. I managed to get in contact with my mother. I have a plan. In order not to let her know that I have been locked up in this room I just need to make her open the door. In this way –> 1. I get in contact with my mother and get her to open the door from outside. 2. I hide myself in the store space under the floor and wait for my mother to go away. 3, I get out of the room without my mother noticing it. I can do it!
I had success in speaking to mom crawling along the floor to the living room. “Hey, it's me””What are you doing?””I decided to clean everything up. I didn't clean this area so I'm doing it now””Why all of a sudden?””I'm an adult. By the way…” “What?””The door of the study is clapped out, could you open it? Maybe if you try with a card or something in the slit it opens”.”I only have my bank card. I think I forgot the others in the card””What's more important to you? A bank card or your dutiful son's word?” “the bank card!”…
After this dialogue, from the ceiling I dived into the box room under the floor. I took my pc with me, since I didn't know when the door might be opened.
Apparently the door opened smoothly. I heard my mom's footsteps over my head then I heard an unidentified noise and realized that she had gone out of the study room. When I was ready to get out of the box room, the lid wouldn't open. To be precise, only a part of it would open if I pushed but it felt like something was weighinging on it. Since it didn't sound like she had moved the table back to its former position I guess she had moved the carpet over. Now I am locked under the floor! My feet are cold but I wrapped them with my mom's sweater and I have special socks, covered in vinyl so I'm fine.
[…]
11時10分追記。脱出に成功した。完結篇はちょっとだけ待って。コーヒー飲んで一服させて。
11:10 p.s. I succeeded in escaping! Please wait and I’ll tell how it ended. Let me drink a cup of coffee first.
I thought I could find a way out and I tried to understand what was at the end of the hole under the floor. But it wasn't a success so I had to get out of the box room.
I grasped the carpet pulling it to one end of the lid. I controlled myself despite a terrible stomach ache and, prudently, I moved the carpet very slowly. I shifted it more than half of the length of the lid of the box space
Controlling my increasingly urgent need of a toilet I pushed the lid and it opened! Then I immediately rushed outside the hole, got out of the room and went to the bathroom. It’s the first time I commit myselff to something like this. Fortunately, my mother was on the 2nd floor hanging out the laundry and she didn't notice what I had been up to. Honestly I was a bit perplexed…what about a mother who doesn't seem to care if I’m OK having any news from me?! But I wasn't in danger and I also managed to hide in the ceiling the porn magazines and videos. It's ok this time but when she said “There's the nikuman I bought you. Warm it up and eat it!” I just felt exhausted.