A New York woman on her way to jury duty found the parking garage exit chained shut, then the elevator wouldn’t come and she had to call police

Jury duty is one of those governmental obligations that people often find frustrating or intimidating, and those summoned are expected to arrive on time and dressed appropriately. For Albany-area makeup artist Melody, the experience turned into a nightmare when she found herself locked inside a parking garage while trying to head to her jury duty summons. Melody walks viewers through her experience, as reported by BroBible.

She starts by showing a pair of standard industrial doors with a crash bar for easy exit, yet they are chained and locked shut. “I’m on my way to jury duty and these doors are chained,” Melody says while pushing against them. The situation became more concerning when she tried to use the elevator to find another way out.

In a follow-up video, she explains that she thought she could take the stairs, but the elevator button was unresponsive. She presses the button in the video and nothing happens, and she tells viewers the police are on the way. Melody highlights some serious safety concerns that come with being stuck in such a space.

Melody says anyone could have cornered her in there

She points out that anyone who wanted to harm her could have blocked her from the elevator or cornered her, leaving her with no escape route. “I’d literally be done for,” Melody says in her follow-up. She also notes that her mind raced to other dangers, such as a fire or being forced to wait for hours to be let out. The path that led her to this predicament involved a series of attempts to problem-solve her way out.

She had initially taken the elevator down to the ground level, only to find the exit chained. Thinking it was strange, she took the elevator back up one floor, planning to use the stairs from there. However, when she exited on that floor, she found those doors chained as well. She then tried to go up one more level and walk down, and that was when she realized the elevator button had stopped working entirely.

The police eventually arrived to let her out, and Melody still made it to jury duty. She told the outlet she reached the courthouse on time. Nobody there cared that she was nearly late, as many other jurors turned up late that morning.

Since then, she has sent multiple emails to members of the fire department. However, she alleges she could not find a name or contact details for an Albany fire marshal, and an email she sent to a building safety address came back undeliverable. She also said the people she notified at the courthouse during jury duty did nothing.