Woman spent over an hour locked inside a Hermès bathroom. But staff allegedly refused to break the door to avoid damaging it

A woman said in a TikTok video that she was locked inside a bathroom at a Hermès store in Berlin for more than an hour after a sliding door would not open. Zarna Garg, who posts as @zarnagarg, shared the clip, which she said has drawn 3.3 million views and more than 3,700 comments. Garg recorded from inside the bathroom while her daughters recorded from outside.

Garg said in the video that she asked whether the door was fire-code compliant. She stated that firefighters later used a crowbar on the bottom of the wooden sliding door while she remained inside.

She said she had been locked in for about 20 minutes when she first spoke to the camera. Garg added that it was “very funny that a place that is so persnickety about perfection, this is happening there.”

Staff and firefighters worked on the sliding door for more than an hour

On-screen text in the video marked the passing time as staff members tried to free them. Garg said no one had told them the door was broken. From her daughter’s recording, Garg can be heard saying, “The door is like the Birkin. You can’t open it, you can’t close it.”

A staff member later told Garg the same problem had happened a few weeks earlier. Garg thanked the workers for trying and suggested games with stacked towels while they waited. At about 40 minutes, Garg’s daughter asked if breaking the door was an option. A staff member replied, “For us, no.” she said they were happy to pay for the door at that point. The staff member said they had to check that it would not be damaged. 

Her daughter then asked whether the only reason they had not broken it down was to protect the door. The staff member answered, “Yes, a little bit.” Garg said in her caption that they jammed the door with a crowbar, alarms went off, and she did not know if she would get hurt. She wrote that her kids watched in horror. After more than an hour, she asked again if they could break the door. A staff member told her to let the workers do their job.

The door opened after about 70 minutes. Garg said, “Oh my God. Let’s victory moment, guys!” She and her daughter then left the bathroom. Garg later said, “Thank God there was no fire.” Garg asked whether there would be an apology. She said a staff member was not saying anything to them. 

As they left, a worker offered something in an orange bag. Garg declined, saying she did not need a bottle of champagne after an hour of being locked in. Outside, a staff member said he had told her daughter the door was broken. Garg replied that nobody had told them that and asked whether they thought she wanted to get locked in.

In her caption, Garg wrote that there was no apology, no explanation, and not even a glance at her kids. She called the champagne offer ironic for a brand known for a bag that is hard to open and close. Being trapped in an unexpected place can be a distressing experience, as when a woman showed up for a doctor’s appointment and found the entire office empty. 

Commenters reacted to how staff handled the lock-in and what followed after the door opened. One person focused on the final exchange and wrote, “Not them blaming you at the end???!!!” Another commenter said the workers seemed more concerned with the door than the people inside. They wrote, “Wow these employees are so rude, they care more about the door than their customer.”

A third commenter called the situation discrimination and wrote, “Lawyer up baby. This is such discrimination they treat you like second class.” Someone else questioned the decision to protect the door first and wrote, “They prioritized door over a trapped person? Thats insanity.”

Another viewer called the champagne offer disrespectful. They wrote, “A bottle of champagne is so disrespectful.” One more commenter described shopping at the brand as a poor experience because of the staff. They wrote, “Buying from Hermes is just a horrible experience because of the staff.”