As someone who's NEVER done an escape room in their life, I am truly intrigued by all the wild ways people try to ~escape~ them.
So this week when Reddit user CreativeUsername352 asked, "Escape Room employees of Reddit, what was the weirdest escape tactic you have seen?" I clicked on it so fast I almost hurt myself.
Here are some of the absolute ~weirdest~ escape attempts:
1. This electrifying event:
"There were paperclips in the room that were supposed to be used to unlock a pair of handcuffs. Instead, someone stuck one into a functioning outlet."
3. This tea time:
"We had a code hidden on a thermo-chromatic mug. There was also a teabag, a kettle, and a paper clue SPECIFICALLY SAYING to 'make a cup of tea.' We had one group get stuck there because they thought the clue was joking and they never made the tea."
4. This astroNOT:
"There was a group of people who came in to do a space-themed escape room. In one of the rooms, there was an astronaut suit that was supposed to just serve as a prop, but one of the members thought that it might be needed to solve a clue in one of the other rooms, so he ended up traversing through the entire escape room while wearing an astronaut suit. It wasn't needed to solve anything."
5. This shocking choice:
"In one of our rooms, there is a blind spot in the corner where we really can't see anything through our cameras. One time some guy was in that spot and pulled off parts of the wall, started to pull on the cables behind the wall and somehow (we STILL don't know how) cut the cables open. He got shocked. It wasn't too bad since we only use low voltage components, and he still got out of the room rather quickly, all things considered."
6. This wall ruiner:
"An escape room we went to warned us not to rip up the wallpaper because, apparently, one group had utterly destroyed one of their rooms by searching for clues under the wallpaper."
7. This obvious cheater:
"There was this escape room where you had to match numbers up with Morse code, and there was, of course, a dictionary of the Morse code in the room. But one group finished that part in 15 seconds without using the dictionary. Usually, people need at least three minutes for it.
After you figure out the Morse code, it tells you to pump a pump to raise a ball with a key out of a tube. It turned out that instead of doing the Morse code and pumping, a guy in the group took out an extendable stick with silver duck tape and used it to pull the ball out of the tube. They finished the whole room in 30 minutes. My question remains: Why did he have an extendable stick with silver duck tape in his coat's inner pocket?"
8. This tickle assault:
"I work at an escape room in Sweden and we use live actors in our games. One time, when one of my colleagues entered in character, a group of people decided to GRAB him and TICKLE him so that he would let them out. The worst part was that when they got out (the normal way) they were very proud of their actions."
9. This ceiling adventure:
"A friend of mine runs an escape room and told me this story:
A small group was in a room that just so happened to have a drop ceiling. You know, the ones with the tiles you can lift up and go inside if you need to? Well, that's what this group decided to do. The employees kept hearing weird thumps and bumps, so my friend went in to check on them and found two people up INSIDE the ceiling. I've done that room before and there is NO CLUE that you should go into the ceiling. Since then, the company has added 'Don't go in the ceiling' to their pre-game rules/safety spiel."
10. This clueless group:
"One time, a group of four women came in who were in their 50s and drunk out of their minds. They started off well, but got stuck when they encountered what we considered to be the easiest puzzle in the room. After a bit of trying, they asked for a clue. After we gave the clue, they all simultaneously sighed, which is a common reaction when people realize that an answer to a puzzle was so simple.
But no, they sighed because they STILL didn't understand. We ended up having to pull them from the room because they started ripping apart the books."
11. This slick date:
"Honestly, the weird stuff I see usually has less to do with people solving the puzzles and more to do with basic human interaction.
My favorite was this guy who ran through a room super quick, no clues, just him and a woman. The whole time he was saying to the woman, 'Oh my god, wow, that surprised me!' and 'Oh, you are SO clever for solving that! I never would have thought of that!' He was really buttering her up. So they finish and leave, and my manager told me she ran that same guy through that same room the previous weekend with a different lady. What a dating tactic."
12. This eagle-eyed player:
"Our rooms had a lot of decorative touches to enhance the mood. One of our rooms had a Victorian parlor/smoking room feel, and on the mantle was a small statue of a bird.
One gentleman decided to pick up and carry the 'eagle' with him for about 45 minutes, saying things like, 'But guys, this eagle has to be for something!' He tried placing it on things, using it as a key, etc. When the group finally escaped, he asked me, 'What was the eagle for?' When I told him it was just a decoration, he seemed absolutely crushed. Meanwhile, the rest of his group was partying and celebrating their success."
13. This child prodigy:
"In the escape room I worked at, we had a little puzzle where you had to find stickers with elements from the periodic table on them and there were numbers that corresponded written next to them. You're supposed to find about 15 of them all around the room and fill them in on a little screen. One time, I was supervising that room and this freaking small child just knew the ENTIRE periodic table off the top of his head and completely skipped the entire searching part."
14. This lost item:
"Working at an escape room I have a LOT of stories, but this one will forever be my favorite. It happened a little over a year ago now:
A guy was wearing a baseball cap when he went into the room and, shortly after entering, took it off and placed it down somewhere. About 10 minutes later, he picked it up and started searching it for clues or hidden messages, but his wife needed to REMIND HIM that that was his own hat. He forgot he had it and thought it was a clue. It actually took some convincing by his wife...he really didn’t believe her at first."
15. And finally, this victor(?):
"I run an escape room where the theme is that you work at a Time Travel Agency. One time, a person walked out of the room mid-game (we can't REALLY lock them in there for fire safety reasons) and just exclaimed their victory."
So, now it's your turn! Whether you're an employee or just a lover of escape rooms, do you have any wild stories? Can you top this weirdness? Share yours in the comments below!
Some thread entries have been edited for length or clarity. H/T Reddit.