Escape rooms, once celebrated as immersive and challenging recreational experiences, have taken an unsettling turn in a series of incidents across America.
Reports have surfaced of a man going around locking escape room employees inside their own establishments, leaving behind cryptic clues for them to decipher in order to regain their freedom.
This disturbing trend blurs the line between entertainment and potential danger, prompting a closer look at the implications of such pranks.
The Puzzling Predicament
The basic premise of escape rooms involves teams solving a series of puzzles and challenges to “escape” from a locked room within a set time frame.
However, the recent incidents involve a lone individual locking escape room employees inside, transforming what should be a recreational activity into a real-life puzzle.
The motivations behind this unsettling trend remain unclear. Is the individual seeking a perverse sense of amusement, enjoying the spectacle of others solving puzzles under duress?
Or is there a more malicious intent, with the potential for harm escalating if the puzzles prove too challenging or if the escape room employees are unable to decipher the clues?
Circulating video
In a circulating video, a bespectacled man with ginger hair was seen hurriedly padlocking the doors of an escape room, just as an employee rushes out.
However, the employee was too late as the doors had already been locked, before the man then inserts a piece of paper with the clues on solving the combination lock, through the doors and into the building.
Netizens’ comments
- Not even masked up, he wants them to know who’s terrorising them🤣
- officer 1:”do you have a description of the suspect” officer 2:”he looks exactly how you’d imagine someone doing this would look like”
- bro think he the riddler 😭
- Is it still breaking the law if it’s funny?
- No camera crew or phone to record either, bros just doin this for fun 😭