A Target worker says they stopped in the bathroom before clocking out, then walked out to a silent store and thought they’d been locked inside

A Target employee recently rushed to Reddit looking for advice when they believed they were locked inside the store after it closed. The employee, u/JJKAY1025, took to the Target subreddit to make a post with a simple question: “Locked inside the store….How do I get out??” They told the community that, at the end of the day, they had to visit the bathroom before clocking out. However, since it looked like the crew was leaving, they first informed a co-worker.

“I come out of the bathroom, put away my devices and clock out, and get my stuff. I waited for the closing lead at the door to let me out and ten minutes go by. It super quiet. Too quiet,” the employee wrote. “I walked around to look for her and called her name like ten times. I think it’s clear I’m locked in. Nobody is around. I don’t know how to contact any of the leads outside of work. What do I do???”

The employee noted that everything got scarier as they walked around. They wrote, “Also I took one step inside of Starbucks to sit down and something started beeping and now there is soft music coming from somewhere. What is that?? It’s super eerie because it’s so deadly silent in here and I’m kinda scared.”

Reddit found the situation just as strange even if they had advice

The post drew plenty of advice from other Redditors. One person suggested, “In the future don’t clock out unless you are free to leave.” A different user was very weirded out by the original poster’s experience at the Starbucks, asking, “What security alarm plays music to gently comfort intruders? That would have royally freaked me out too lol what did I just interact with in here.”

Other commenters shared their own stories of being locked inside empty buildings. One person noted, “I’ve closed the store before and had someone run off to the bathroom after I took attendance and turned my back to clock out myself. Almost locked her inside.” Another user mentioned, “Happened to me once. It was like my 5th week. I didn’t know an alarm would go off so I just used the side door at the front and locked it before leaving.”

Strangely enough, this situation of workers getting locked in after hours has come up on Reddit before. In a previous thread on the Target subreddit, a user who said they were familiar with the store wrote, “1-800-622-0650 This is the alarm center. They’ll have the STL and other alarm responders’ contact info and they can contact them if you haven’t exited through a firedoor yet. They’ll just need the store number.”

In a different post on the Legal Advice subreddit, users advised that safety always comes first. The suggestion was that the person stuck in the store should coordinate with the fire department to prevent a full response, and then use the fire or emergency exit, since it is unlocked from the inside for fire safety.

In a later edit to the post, the original poster reported that the situation resolved itself quickly. “Edit: False alarm. Two leads just came walking and were shocked I was still here. I asked them what took them so long and they said they were in the back room packing a cart but they didn’t hear me. These people just gave me a heart attack.”

Attack of the Fanboy was unable to independently verify Target’s side of the story, as this account originates solely from JJKAY1025’s Reddit post.