Visitor Trapped In Jail: Door Closes, Locks Behind Visitor In Max Security Jail

A visitor trapped in jail wound up staying there for 31 hours. An unidentified man entered Cook County jail in Chicago to visit his son when the unthinkable happened: A door closed and locked behind him, trapping him inside. According to The Huffington Post, the man was given directions to get to the visiting area, but he entered a room that was under renovation. The door to the room had been propped open, so the man apparently thought it was the way he was supposed to go.

Moments later, the door closed — and locked — but the man didn’t realize it. He kept walking and went through another steel door that did the same thing. Two hours later, the man realized that his son wasn’t coming in the room. The man ended up trapped in a room meant for visitations with maximum security prisoners.

Cara Smith, executive director of the jail, said:

“He went into that room through two steel doors, both of which shut behind him and he was locked in. After about two hours he realized he was in the wrong room.”

The visitor trapped in the jail room had no way of getting out — and there wasn’t any way he could be heard either. Despite trying to bang on the door, yell for help, and try to attract anyone’s attention, the man’s attempts failed.

Smith explained:

“There’s about two feet of cement and two steel doors between him and the outside.”

Since the room wasn’t being used at the time, no one checked it. At all. Hours passed, and the man continuously tried to think of ways to get out. Finally, he thought of something that would work. He eyed the sprinkler in the room and thought that if he made it go off, some alarm would sound, or something would happen that would send others to rescue him. And he was right.

Smith said:

“Brilliantly, he broke the sprinkler head off which alerted the fire department so they were able to identify where it was coming from and they went in and found him.”

The visitor trapped in jail was in good health when he was finally found. According to AZCentral, the man cut his thumb while breaking the sprinkler head off and he needed stitches. It is unclear if the man went back to the jail to see his son after getting his thumb treated.

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, a lawyer was trapped in a jail in San Diego last year. He remained trapped for four hours — that’s when someone actually heard him pounding on the door and yelling for help.

[Photo courtesy of JCH Marketing Chicago]